


Burning bridges

by Dissenter



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Arson, Big Brother is Watching, Black Organization (Meitantei Conan), Bodies Falling from the Sky, Conspiracy, Corruption, Desperate Measures, Disguise, Everyone Has Issues, Flashbacks, Friendship, Hakuba is the sensible one, Heiji has terrible plans, Heiji is a terrible liar, Heiji rescues him, Human Experimentation, Ignore them - Freeform, Implied/Referenced Child Death, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, It's a thankless job but someone's got to do it, Kazuha wants answers, Kid is an interfering busybody, On the Run, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Property Damage, Shinichi and Heiji know exactly how to deal with traumatic life experiences, Shinichi does not have any better ones, Shinichi gets caught, Shinichi is conflicted, Shinichi is disturbingly manipulative, Terrorist road trip, There may be some collateral damage, Trauma, Vermouth is not a nice person, bamf Kazuha, bamf Ran, his name is Hakuba, improvised explosives, unfortunately she's also very helpful, which makes it even more annoying when he's right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-10 20:10:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 23,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11699046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dissenter/pseuds/Dissenter
Summary: A good friend will call the police when a shadowy and sinister criminal organisation kidnaps you. A best friend will break into their secret base, rescue you, and set the place on fire on the way out. Hattori Heiji is Kudo Shinichi’s best friend.





	1. Good friends with bad plans

**Author's Note:**

> In which the black organisation catches up to Shinichi, and Heiji takes drastic action to rescue him.

Everything hurt. His head, his limbs, his body. He tried to think through the haziness that wrapped itself around his thoughts, to try and remember what happened. There were flashes, Gin, Vodka, white walls, and unfeeling eyes behind lab goggles and white coats. Then he remembered.

They’d found him.

He was reluctant to open his eyes, not sure he wanted to see what they’d do to him next. They’d been very… _interested_ in how he’d got de-aged. The drugs at least kept him numb, he hadn’t been able to _feel_ what they were doing to him, but he’d seen enough to give himself the cold shakes.

Actually that was odd. He _hurt,_ a lot, they usually kept him too drugged up to feel pain. Actually they usually kept him too drugs up to be this aware of the situation. That he was clearheaded and in pain, meant the drugs must be wearing off. That was something new, and maybe an opportunity. He could _think_ now, maybe he could find a way out.

He opened his eyes and was greeted by the stained ceiling of a particularly cheap and nasty hotel room. That was different. He turned his head. Definitely a cheap hotel room, of the sort usually frequented by drug dealers, and prostitutes, not a sign of the clinical white walls of the lab, it was quite possibly the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. He breathed in the scent of old cigarettes and sex and let the absence of the cold disinfectant smell calm his frantically beating heart. He was out, he was out. He didn’t know the how or the why, but he was out.

“Oh good, you’re awake. Hope you’re a little more coherent this time.” He knew that voice. And because he knew that voice, he knew why he was free. He didn’t know _how_ Hattori had managed it, but he’d got him out of there. He wondered just how much trouble doing so had brought to Hattori’s door.

“How long?” He rasped out, he’d been doing more screaming than talking recently and words didn’t come easily.

“They had you for about a month give or take. I got you out two days ago. You’ve been pretty out of it.” Shinichi tried to speak again but was overwhelmed by a vicious bout of coughing. Hattori rushed over with a glass of water. Hattori carried on talking as Shinichi drank.

“It took a while to work out where they were holding you, they’re slippery bastards, and I couldn’t use any police resources. Couldn’t even let them know I was investigating. It’s worse than we thought Kudo. The rot goes all the way to the top.” Well Shinichi supposed that explained how they’d found him. But if the police were that compromised then how had Hattori…?

“How did you…?” Shinichi broke down in another fit of coughing, but Hattori seemed to understand what he was trying to ask.

“Well, it took a while, that Vermouth woman helped by giving me a list of facilities, but I still had to narrow it down, ‘cause I knew I’d only get one shot. Then once I found it, I went in and got you out. Then I brought you here to recover and plan our next move.” The lack of details was suspicious, there was something Hattori wasn’t telling him, Shinichi narrowed his eyes.

“ _How_ did you get me out.” Hattori rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Well, I kind of set their base on fire as a distraction.”

“What?” Shinichi wasn’t sure why he was even surprised. That was _exactly_ the sort of thing Hattori would do. He would have criticised, but Hattori’s expression suddenly turned serious.

“I’m not sorry I did it. I saw what they were doing in there. That place needed to _burn._ ” There were shadows in his eyes as he said it, shadows and a dark conviction, that Shinichi couldn’t find it in himself to argue with. Not when the memories of white walls, and white coats, and screaming for them to stop, were still so close in his thoughts.

“Ok.” He said instead. “Ok. I trust you. So what do we do now?”

“Well, obviously we can’t go to the police, or the press, seeing as we’re on the run. Most of the people we know, are out as well, they’ll be under surveillance. Your mother taught me a few disguise techniques once we figured out what I’d have to do to get you out, so at least we can go out in public, and I have a decent amount of cash, but aside from that we’re short on resources.”

“What do you mean we’re on the run?” Shinichi asked suspiciously.

“I told you I had to burn the base down. We’re now wanted terrorists. We’re on the evening news and everything.” Hattori seemed entirely too cheerful about that fact.

“What?” Shinichi said flatly.

“Well technically, it’s me and Kudo who are wanted terrorists. Edogawa Conan is officially a hostage.” Shinichi attempted to convey with the sheer power of his glare how very unimpressed he was with this turn of events. “This is actually a _good_ thing though. It means they’re making the search public, which means they can’t target the people we care about without attracting attention. It was actually one of our best case scenarios.” Shinichi had to admit he might have a point. So he homed in on the other detail Hattori had let slip.

“Our?”

“Well your parents couldn’t help directly because they were being watched too closely, but they helped me with the planning, and put me in touch with suppliers of the kind of stuff I’d need to break you out, and that little neesan was really helpful in predicting what kinds of reactions those guys might have. Of course she had to disappear as soon as we figured out what happened to you, but she gave me a phone number. Said she owed you, and she wasn’t prepared to just let them have you.” Shinichi felt a knot of tension in his chest ease at the confirmation that Ai had escaped, he’d _thought_ he left enough clues to warn her, but he hadn’t been sure.

“So what do we do now?” he asked again.

“Well I figured, since we’re already terrorists, we might as well go and trash some more of their operations. It’s not like we can deal with them legally now, not with the amount of influence they have.” There was that innapropriately cheerful look again, if Shinichi didn’t know better he’d think Hattori was excited by the idea of wreaking morally righteous destruction.

“That’s a terrible plan” He declared in a futile attempt to derail Hattori’s enthusiasm.

“You got a better one?” Hattori asked.

“…no.” Shinichi admitted.

“Well then, let’s go and blow up some evil lairs.”


	2. Bad situations and daring rescues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes there are no good choices. Only the ones you can live with, and the ones you can't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heiji rescues Shinichi, and gains more than a few nightmares in the process.

Heiji looked over at where Kudo was sleeping. Reassuring himself that he was still there. A month, it was hardly any time at all really, hardly anything. It was still far too long. An hour would have been too long, a month? Part of him had been half convinced Vermouth had been lying to him, that Kudo was already dead. Maybe going in the way he did had been reckless, maybe if he’d waited a little longer he could have got them both clear with fewer repercussions. But he knew, in his blood and his heart and his bones, that he couldn’t leave Kudo in there one more day than he had to.

He’d known there would be a price. Right from the beginning, when Kudo had disappeared, when he’d left that warning for the little Neesan to get out before it was too late. They’d all known what it meant. Well, those of them in the know at any rate. Most of them had thought he was dead, but then Vermouth had contacted them and told them he was alive, that they were experimenting on him, she didn’t know where. She’d given them a list of potential locations. He'd known there would be a price for getting Kudo out. But he wasn't the kind of guy that would let that stop him.

The little Neesan had called him an idiot. Had said it was probably a trap. She was right of course, but that changed nothing, and he said as much. She’d snapped at him then, anger to mask grief and fear, but in the end she knew he was right too. In the end, without her help, her inside knowledge, her scientific training, it would probably have taken him at least twice as long to work out exactly where they were holding Kudo.

She’d run him through as much basic wound treatment as she could over the phone as well, and that was another thing to be grateful for once he had Kudo out. He… wasn’t in good shape. Not the worst, Heiji had seen things on the way in, Kudo hadn’t been their only subject, but he’d been the only one still breathing when Heiji arrived. He still wasn’t sure whether to be grateful for that, because the state some of those bodies had been in. He was a detective, he’d seen some bad things, but that place would be giving him nightmares for a _very_ long time. The only help he could have given them would have been a clean death, he didn’t know if he’d have been able to live with himself if he’d given it to them. He didn’t know if he’d have been able to live with himself if he hadn’t. And so a part of himself that he was trying not to examine too closely was grateful they’d been dead before he arrived, even as he was guilty he hadn’t got there early enough to save them. Kudo hadn’t been the smallest body he’d seen in that place.

Kudo had at least been mostly intact, stitched up incisions and disturbing tubes pumping him full of chemicals notwithstanding. According to the charts it seemed as though they were trying to work out how the drug’s side effect worked, and whether it could be duplicated. Scientific procedure, isolate the variables. They hadn’t tested anything else on him while they were trying to figure out the apotoxin. Small mercies. Kudo had been alive, and intact enough to safely move, and that had been a great deal better than he feared. The little Neesan’s instructions had been enough for him to keep his friend stable through the long two days it took for his system to clear whatever those bastards had given him. Heiji had breathed a quiet sigh of relief when Kudo had finally woken up coherent.

He’d skimmed over a few things when he’d explained things to Kudo. Considering the state he was in there were some things he was just better off not knowing. Like the fact that getting him out might not have been a bloodless operation. He’d _tried_ to avoid rather than attack, but he’d always known he’d have to fight his way out. His opponents had all been breathing when he left them but, head injuries could be tricky and he’d hit that one guy pretty hard with the bokken he’d brought with him. He at least hadn’t burned any of them. He wasn’t a monster. He’d pulled the fire alarm and dragged his unconscious opponents out of the building despite the cost in time. But there was blood on that guy’s head, and on the edge of his bokken, and he _wasn’t moving_ , and Heiji had hit him harder than he should have after seeing _colddeadtiny bodies, cut up, cut open, warped and changed and twisted and deaddeaddead._ Kudo didn’t need to know, not now, not while he was still recovering. That Heiji might be a murderer, that if he was it was for _his_ sake. Heiji didn’t think it would be good for Kudo’s recovery.

Heiji hadn’t told Kudo about the other test subjects either. And that was at least as much for his own sake as Kudo’s. He really didn’t want to talk about that yet. Burning the base always been the plan. If Kudo had been more himself he would have known that. Buildings like that didn’t just burn, it required preparation, accelerants, he’d set explosive charges before he’d even ventured into the main lab area. He’d known they’d need the distraction if they were going to get any sort of headstart. But if he hadn’t already been planning to burn the place, to cover his and Kudo’s tracks, to undermine _their_ research, to mask the side trip he’d taken to raid their computers for everything he could find, even without all those reasons he would have found a way to burn the place, because some things needed to be _destroyed._  

As he made his escape with Kudo slung over his shoulder, he’d found himself deeply grateful for Kudo’s small size. If Kudo had been full grown, he had no idea how he could have gotten free of the base before they caught up with him. As it was they had got away clean, and found somewhere reasonably safe to hole up while Kudo recovered, and Heiji passed on the takings from his little smash and grab to Agasa and the little Neesan to analyse. It had actually been Agasa’s suggestion that he go for the computers if he got the chance. That they might need records on whatever they’d done to Shinichi to stand a chance of helping him once he was out. And then of course the little Neesan had pointed out that he might as well grab anything else that looked interesting while he was at it. Heiji posted the USB to their agreed upon dead drop, before calling the little Neesan to confirm it had been sent.

“You got it?” Straight to the point, it was a trait he’d grown to appreciate in her.

“Yeah I got it. It’s in the post. Kudo’s woken up too. Seems more coherent. We’ll be leaving as soon as he can walk on his own.” He knew better than to ask where she was, she wouldn’t answer, and she would be right not to. What he didn’t know couldn’t be tortured out of him.

“Ok. I’ll call you tomorrow for an update. Same phone?” Heiji thought he detected a note of relief in her voice. Underneath the defensive coldness it was obvious that she worried about Kudo.

“Until next week yeah. Keep safe.”

“Hah, isn’t that my line, Hothead san.” She was laughing now, it was a welcome change from the drawn tension of the last month.

“Very funny little Neesan. Bye.” He hung up. It didn’t pay to let their calls run too long, even if they did take care to change phones frequently. It wasn’t paranoia when they really were out to get you.

Time to head back to Kudo. Heiji still wasn’t comfortable leaving him alone for too long, and the little Neesan would have his head if anything happened to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Ai went into hiding with Agasa as soon as Shinichi dissapeared, but she's been in contact with Heiji via a string of disposable phones, in order to help him with rescuing Shinichi.  
> They are all very very glad Shinichi doesn't need life support, because while Ai's been able to talk Heiji through basic wound care, and drug withdrawal, anything more complicated would be a major problem.  
> Heiji broke into their computer archives on the way to get Shinichi, in the hopes of getting something useful, since he was in the area.   
> And no Heiji didn't burn any people alive, that would be too big a break in character. But he did hit someone in the head with a bokken and he has no way of knowing if they're ok, he suspects probably not.


	3. Good disguises and bad memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi finds he has to make some adjustments to deal with the current situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi and Heiji leave town, to embark on their terrorist road trip.

“Oi Hattori. What’s in the bag?” He suspected it was disguises, so that they could get out of town without being seen. Shinichi was feeling, not completely better, but at least able to move around a bit, and he knew they couldn’t afford to stay in one place for long.

“Disguises.” Hattori responded, just as Shinichi had suspected, but the shifty look in Hattori’s eyes promised nothing good.

“What kind of disguises?” He asked suspiciously, and tried not to think about the fact that his mother probably had a hand in teaching Hattori disguises.

“You’re not gonna like it.” He opened the bag. Shinichi didn’t like it.

“It’s pink.” He said flatly.

“There were limited options.” Hattori argued weakly.

“It’s a _dress_ Hattori.” He could see the reasoning, but really, as if being a six year old wasn’t embarrassing enough, now he had to be a six year old girl.

“Look I’m not exactly happy with the situation either. But they’re looking for a teenage boy with a little boy that doesn’t look related to him. Two half-sisters on a family bonding trip are far less suspicious.” The worst thing was he was right. Context blurring, changing major identifying features, it was all pretty textbook stuff. Still, it was very embarrassing. In fact this didn’t seem quite like one of Hattori’s plans at all, which meant.

“This was my mother’s idea wasn’t it.” Hattori’s expression was all the answer he needed. He pinched the bridge of his nose and counted slowly back from ten.

“On the bright side it’s only for a little while. Just until we get out of town, then we can switch to different disguises.” Hattori tried, half-heartedly to console him.

“And how are we going to do that?” Shinichi dared to ask.

“We’ll hire a car of course.” Hattori had smiled at the change in subject.

“Do you even have a license?” Shinichi was pretty sure he knew the answer to that, but still, anything was better than contemplating the dresses and wigs that were waiting for them.

“Of course I have a license. They won’t let you hire a car without one.” Shinichi was pretty sure Hattori wasn’t actually legal to drive yet. Not if he was telling the truth about how long Shinichi had been out of contact.

“It’s forged isn’t it?” He sighed, really Hattori was far too comfortable with being a criminal, although maybe it was just that he’d had more time to adjust. A whole month planning while Shinichi was being tortured. It only made sense he’d managed to adapt.

“Well yes. I’m not exactly old enough to have a real one, and even if I did I couldn’t use it without giving away my identity.” He was right of course, but still, it was disturbing how quickly so many of his friends and relatives had slipped into criminality. It really couldn’t be just Hattori, it took a lot more than a month to become a professional level forger and it wasn’t a skill he’d have pegged hattori for before everything went to hell. Honestly he was putting money on his father for the fake documents. It sounded like the sort of thing his father might have learned to do.

“You do know that’s illegal right?”

“Not the worst crime I’ve committed this week.” Hattori pointed out. “We’re kind of way past the point of worrying about whether things are legal now Kudo. Or did you miss the part where we’re wanted terrorists?” And it _burned_ that Hattori was right, that the law he’d trusted in, worked so hard to support had now turned on them and was hunting them down like animals.

“Sorry if it’s taking a while to adjust to being on the _most wanted list._ It’s not exactly a situation I ever pictured myself being in.” Shinichi snapped. The hurt look on Hattori’s face warned him he’d gone too far. He didn’t mean to take it out on Hattori, all the anger, and frustration, and _fear_ he was trying to come to grips with. It wasn’t fair but Hattori was _there,_ and he’d been locked in a room with him for days, and he just couldn’t quite help himself. He shook himself. He was _better_ than that. Hattori had rescued him from hell, and sacrificed pretty much everything doing it, and never breathed a word of complaint. The least he could do was be grateful.

“I’m sorry.” He said, and _meant_ it. “I didn’t mean it like that. You did your best, probably a lot better than I could’ve managed in the same situation. I’m just stressed, abut everything that’s going on.” The apology seemed to work at least, Hattori’s cheerful smile back in place. He always did forgive too easily.

“Don’t worry about it Kudo. It’ll all work out. I won’t let them take you again.” Shinichi refused to admit what a comfort that promise was.

…

The car was cheap. They’d ended up buying it outright, cash in hand, less of a trail that way, and the owners of the second hand car dealership didn’t look like the sort who’d want to call the police’s attention to themselves. Hattori had turned out to be a surprisingly reasonable driver, and they made good time away from the city. They dumped the car and switched out the dresses at the next decent sized town they came across, and Shinichi breathed a sigh of relief. They made convincing enough girls to pass casual inspection, but as cross dressers they weren’t exactly Kid level, and anyone looking too closely would have raised questions they really didn’t want to answer. Not to mention the fact that the dress was pink, frilly, and just the kind of monstrosity his mother would pick out in this situation. The whole experience had been mildly traumatic, in an entirely different way to his month of highly illegal human experimentation. He was _never_ going to be able to banish the image of Hattori in a bright yellow sundress. Haibara would probably set it as her screensaver when all this was over.

“It’s not all bad you know.” Hattori said abruptly. Shinichi blinked in confusion. “I mean yeah, the corruption goes all the way to the top, way further than we ever suspected. But, there’s still good people with the cops, the FBI, Megure, Jodie sensei, a whole bunch of others. They’re trying to help where they can. They can’t do anything too obvious of course or they’ll be dealt with, but they’re doing what they can, and if we can weaken the organisation far enough they might be able to root out the corruption and take them down. It’s not just for our own personal satisfaction that we’re going with this plan. If we take down enough of their bases, do enough damage. That shit costs money, and money is what keeps criminal organisations afloat, they need it to bribe people, to buy weapons and equipment, to _pay_ their members.”

“And of course if two teenagers on the run can do enough damage to them, it’ll damage their reputation, make them seem less terrifying, less overwhelming, and that should undermine their power too.” Never let it be said Shinichi was slow on the uptake. He would admit that a part of him thought the idea of blowing up a few labs like the one he was trapped in sounded fairly cathartic, but he was never one to indulge his baser urges, he wouldn’t be going along with it if he couldn’t see the practical benefits. Hattori just nodded in agreement. They knew each other’s thought patterns well enough that they probably hadn’t needed to say most of that out loud, but it felt so good to hear a friendly voice, to speak and be listened to. It helped, and Shinichi suspected that speaking out loud helped reassure Hattori too. Reminded him that Shinichi was alive, and safe, and _present,_ not dead in that cold sterile room. Hattori still hadn’t told him what he’d seen in the labs on the way to get him, but he woke up most nights in a cold sweat and Shinichi knew it wasn’t anything good.

Part of him was too afraid to even ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Heiji seems a little too ok with the whole wanted criminal situation, remember he's had a whole month, while he was tracking Shinichi down to come to terms with the fact that this was actually one of the better outcomes they could be facing. If Shinichi seems a little too panicked about the whole thing, bear in mind he's only been concious and lucid for a couple of days, and he's pretty badly traumatised. He's still adjusting.  
> And yeah, so anyone who was wondering what their law enforcement friends were doing while Shinichi was being experimented on, basically Shinichi's parents and Heiji managed to talk them into keeping their heads down so they could sabotage the orgs recapture efforts when the opportunity arose, and possibly take down the org itself if Heiji and Shinichi's plan works.  
> The other option was letting them get themselves killed, and none of Shinichi's friends wanted that.


	4. Bad dreams and difficult work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haibara knows guilt and fear all too well, by this point they're easy. Hope, that's harder, that's new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haibara sorts through the data Heiji stole from the lab.

Guilt was an old companion, nearly as old and familiar as fear, she knew them both as well as her own name, the one that she threw away, that she never spoke anymore. They followed her like a shadow during the day, and curled up in bed with her at night, they burned with every breath, and sent ice rushing through her veins with every heartbeat. They were more mother and father to her than her real parents ever had been. She had thought she knew how low they could bring her.

And yet still, knowing that _they_ had Kudo, knowing what they were probably doing to him, that had been a new level of horror. Because she _knew,_ what Hattori only suspected, could only imagine. She had grown up with that darkness, had played her own part in it until it became more than she could bear. Because she owed Kudo too much, and cost him too much, and relied on him too much, and still she hadn’t been able to keep him safe from that.

She still remembered the cold paralysing horror when she realised why Kudo had told her to run, that he had been caught. _They_ had figured out the truth, and now there was nowhere left to hide, no-one left to help her fight. It was like all of her worst nightmares coming true, and the worst part was part of her had half expected it. _They_ had always been such an impossible unthinkable overwhelming force to face. She hadn’t really expected to be able to win against them.

She still wasn’t sure what had possessed her to give Hattori a working phone number before she disappeared, it was a risk and she’d half expected to regret it. He was hotheaded, a risktaker and if he’d been caught that phone number might have been the end of her. But where she was paralysed by old nightmares, Hattori was all determination, and reckless courage, and will to act, and if there was any hope of saving Kudo, that was something they would _need_. She hadn’t _really_ believed she could beat _them,_ but Hattori believed enough for both of them, and she owed Kudo far too much not to _try_.

And so began a month of searching, and researching, and planning, and somewhere along the way Hattori had become a friend, had become someone she trusted, and cared for, but still she couldn’t believe in him. She couldn’t believe in anyone, not against _them_ , she’d believed in Kudo and yet still it hadn’t been enough, still they’d caught him. She wore herself to the bone going over plans and possibilities and ways it could all play out and yet deep in her heart of hearts she hadn’t really believed Hattori would succeed in his mad reckless plan. She’d been prepared to mourn another friend when he finally went in. That was until she’d got the call. He’d done it, in his typical impossible way. He’d made it out with Kudo and a whole research base’s computer files, both of them alive and breathing, and the base on fire behind them.

She wasn’t sure how to deal with that. Guilt, and grief, and fear were old companions. She didn’t know what to do with hope or relief, or happiness.

…

She didn’t know how she managed to sort through the files Hattori sent her. Innocent looking numbers, bloodless descriptions, cold data, but she knew the screams that were hidden behind the lines of text, and she knew that it wasn’t just faceless subjects they were doing those things to, it was Kudo. Her victim, her saviour, her friend. She didn’t know how she managed to read it all without breaking.

No that was a lie, she knew exactly how she did it, the same way she always had, she put everything she couldn’t afford to feel into a box and focused on the raw facts. A scientist’s compartmentalisation. Hattori and Kudo needed her, needed her knowledge, her skill, the secrets she could extract from lines of bloodstained data. They didn’t need her tears. She’d learned years ago that tears never fixed anything anyway. They hadn’t saved her sister, hadn’t saved her, wouldn’t save anyone, but reading through the data with a cool head and steady detachment just might save _everyone_.

And there was useful knowledge, usable knowledge, in amongst the horrors. Names, locations, lines of research and the resources they’d require. Things that would be evidence if the courts weren’t brought and paid for. Things that could be targets, if approached in the right way. She thought long and hard about how much of it to send back to Hattori.

She ended up stripping it down to the bare bones. A list of targets, with weaknesses, and priority rankings. Enough to get started on his plan to undermine _them_ by destroying their bases of operations, but none of the scientific data. Hattori might have been helpful analysing the data, but he didn’t need the distraction, not now, not with _them_ so close on his tail, not with so much to do and so little space to breathe. If she asked him to help he would, and that was why she couldn’t ask it, because there was already too much resting on his shoulders. Besides, there was no need to weigh him down with more nightmares.

Also, Ai knew, that anything she gave Hattori she also gave to Kudo, and she wasn’t prepared to let Kudo sort through the records of his own torture. And he would, she knew he would because Kudo never knew when to stop asking questions, even when the answers would break him. He wouldn’t stop himself, so she would stop him. It was better that way, and Hattori agreed. Give them what they needed to _act_ and save the rest for evidence if they were ever in a position to bring _them_ to justice.

She had a secure location, and time to spare going through it all with a fine tooth comb, let Hattori and Kudo focus on surviving, on staying one step ahead of _them,_ and striking back without getting caught. Research was something she could take care of, and any nightmares she gained from it well, they’d probably be no less than she deserved.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ai may have a few issues. Possibly.  
> But she has no time for a breakdown so she's repressing. Pretty much like Shinichi and Heiji really.   
> She's just sent Heiji and Shinichi a hitlist, so the terrorist road trip will really get underway next chapter.


	5. Useful skills and bad coping mechanisms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi finds that criminal activity is very useful in helping distract him from his issues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haibara sends Heiji and Shinichi a hitlist. Heiji and Shinichi make use of some of their more... questionable skills.

“Awesome.” Hattori’s voice came out of the blue, jerking Shinichi out of the half doze he’d drifted into.

“What’s going on?” He mumbled, still groggy.

“The Little Neesan just sent me a list.” Hattori’s grin was more teeth than anything else, and Shinichi knew that if he’d been wearing a hat he’d have turned it around, a sign that the hunt was on. Shinichi’s slow answering smile was probably equally vicious. He knew what kind of list Haibara had sent them. It was the one they’d both been waiting for.

“So where are we headed first?” Hattori’s grin widened even further, sharklike in its predatory intent.

“Better brush up on your Osaka ben Kudo. There’s a chemistry research base back there that’s just begging for the application of high explosives. If we’re really lucky they might even have some useful information on that ahotoxin they used on you.” Of _course_ Hattori would be pleased about heading to Osaka. Subtle about his love for his hometown, he was not.

“Don’t you think that might be a bit… risky. They’d probably expect you to head there.” Shinichi had a sinking feeling that he’d be playing the voice of reason a _lot_ in the coming months. It wasn’t, to be honest, a role he was particularly suited for, especially considering the amount of trouble he’d managed to get himself into over the last couple of years, but well, it wasn’t like Hattori was going to be the sensible one. He suddenly had a wave of sympathy for poor Kazuha who’d been dealing with this since they were small children.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Only an idiot would head for their own home town when they’re on the run, and those guys know that neither of us are idiots. It’s the last thing they’ll expect.” There was a flaw in that reasoning, Shinichi knew there was, just because he couldn’t quite identify it didn’t mean it wasn’t there. He blamed the fact that his head was still fuzzy from the lingering effects of the drugs for his inability to come up with any convincing arguments to deter Hattori’s enthusiasm. His own eagerness to actually move against the organisation had nothing to do with it. Not in the slightest.

This was probably going to be a total trainwreck.

…

Watching Hattori assemble a bomb, or rather a series of bombs, from a collection of easily obtainable household chemicals and electrical supplies, was faintly alarming. He’d stopped off at a supermarket, a pharmacy, two electronics suppliers, and three different petrol stations, and now they were parked out of sight of the road while he displayed a disturbing amount of competency in assembling improvised explosives. Shinichi wasn’t sure he wanted to know but morbid curiosity drove him to ask.

“Why exactly do you know how to make a homemade bomb?” Hattori just shrugged.

“I guess I just do. You should know, being a detective means picking up all kinds of random knowledge. Can’t say I ever thought I’d be using it in this context though. Still it looks like it all turned out for the best. If I didn’t know how to do this stuff, we’d have to try setting it on fire again, and that could be risky. Setting out all the accelerants takes longer than planting a bomb, and more time means more chance of getting caught.” Shinichi wondered what context Hattori thought he _would_ be using his knowledge of explosives in, before dismissing it. It was after all true, the strangest things did come up in the course of detective work. That time Kogoro’s obsession with Okino Yoko and consequent memorisation of every film and tv appearance she’d ever made, had managed to solve a case, probably took the cake.

And Hattori was right, it really was a good thing he did know how to do this stuff, because it was exactly the sort of thing they _needed_ to do to make the plan work. There was no room for half measure anymore, not if Hattori was right about how far the organisations reach went. If they were going to do this then Shinichi would have to stop being so squeamish, they had a plan, and it was about time he started pulling his weight. He watched Hattori work for a moment before he rolled his eyes, pushed him out of the way and took the electronic components.

“Do you want timed detonators, or remote activation?” He sighed in exasperation. Clearly Hattori’s skill with explosives didn’t extend to the associated electronics. He wasn’t _bad,_ but it clearly wasn’t his specialty. Shinichi was better.

“Timed, with failsafes in case of tampering is probably best.” Hattori responded after spending a few moments watching small fingers dance over wires and circuit boards. Shinichi just nodded in acknowledgement as he lost himself in the work. There was in the end, not that much difference between being able to defuse a detonator and being able to build one. It was after all the same work, just in reverse.

He carefully didn’t think about how his and Heiji’s detective skills would probably allow them both to commit murder and get away with it. Just because they could, didn’t mean they would. They wouldn’t, they weren’t that sort of person. Just because they were criminals now didn’t mean they’d cross that line. The Kid was a criminal too, and he never let _anyone_ get hurt. Shinich spoke up, mostly to distract himself from his darker thoughts.

“So we’re going for a stealth approach this time then, rather than a front on assault.” He couldn’t resist the subtle dig, because that rescue really had been pure Hattori. Reckless, destructive, and direct. Not that he wasn’t glad of it, but teasing Heiji was exactly the kind of normalcy they both needed, and it was really too good an opportunity to pass up. Hattori didn’t seem to notice the implication though. Just answered, practical, and focused on the plan.

“Yeah. It’d probably be best to be well clear before we trigger the blast, if we can manage it. It’s not like where they were holding you. Smaller, less security, and with all the chaos of your escape, the facility should be operating on minimal staffing. We should be able to get in and out without direct confrontation.” There was something in Hattori’s eyes at that last part, a shadow, Shinichi didn’t think he’d answer if he asked about it, but he filed it away for future reference. Whatever it was, it would come out eventually, along with everything else they were carefully, by unspoken agreement, _not talking about_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. Heiji knows how to make bombs. Shinichi knows how to make detonators. There is a perfectly innocent, if long and complicated explanation for those skills. But it kind of looks pretty bad. From an outsiders point of view.  
> Next chapter. Heiji and Shinichi arrive in Osaka. There is crime, poor decision making, and a total failure to address any of their psychological issues. Then Kazuha shows up. It doesn't go well.


	6. Bad luck and old friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trouble with heading home is the unfortunate risk of running into familiar faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heiji and Shinichi arrive in Osaka. Things go far too smoothly. Until they really really don't.

It was good to be back in Osaka, he felt steady, anchored in a way he hadn’t since Kudo was taken. Heiji wasn’t an idiot, he knew it was a risk, being back in his hometown, but it was still a comfort, being on home territory. He knew Osaka like the back of his hand, the backstreets, the landmarks, the people. Kudo laughed about his sense of direction but he never got lost in Osaka. It might be the obvious place for the organisation to start looking for him, but it was also a place he knew how to disappear into, and that meant the risk wasn’t as high as Kudo seemed to think.

Besides it was good to eat something that wasn’t completely overspiced for once, and he knew his good mood was affecting Kudo. The guy looked more relaxed than he had in days, despite the lingering paranoia about getting caught. It might be a reckless move, heading back to Osaka so soon, but he didn’t think it was the wrong one.

Although there had been a slight moment of panic when they’d run into a police officer. They’d been in disguise of course, and the officer was thankfully not someone he knew personally, but the man had still looked suspicious of the two of them. The disguises weren’t as heavy as the ones they’d used during their initial getaway, and they technically matched the parameters of the search. A teenaged boy, with an unrelated child. If he’d confronted them it probably would have been bad. Heiji would admit he probably wasn’t the worlds best liar.

Luckily Kudo had remembered that, and before the officer could say anything, he’d piped up in that disturbingly sugar sweet voice, seemingly oblivious to the officer’s presence.

“Hey, Kaori nee chan. Can we get ice cream?” Heiji only just had the presence of mind to shift the register of his voice to something more feminine before answering, equally sickly sweet.

“Of course we can Haru chan.” He played along, grateful for the lessons Kudo’s mother had given him in disguising his voice. Kudo really was terrifyingly manipulative at times. One sentence from each of them, and he’d managed to neatly prevent a confrontation. Heiji was pretty sure Kudo had got the idea from watching people’s reactions to that girl Sera san.

He could see the policeman’s poorly concealed embarrassment at having mistaken a teenage girl for a boy, his relief that he hadn’t said anything, the way he dismissed his earlier suspicions as paranoia. After all, if a boy was going to disguise himself as a girl, surely he’d try and be more convincing about it. And of course his embarrassment over his mistake would keep him from wanting to push further, it was after all, the kind of thing most people would take offence at. Kudo’s ability to use peoples assumptions to deflect their suspicions even when he was acting really shifty, was downright disturbing at times. Still it was pretty useful so Heiji wasn’t going to complain.

…

It was unnerving. How smoothly the plan went down. He supposed it was because those guys weren’t expecting anything. He and Kudo had managed to get in, plant the bombs, raid the computer banks, and get out, without anyone the wiser. Now all they had to do was wait, and confirm that the explosions had gone off as planned. The sensible choice would probably have been to disappear straightway, but neither of them was quite willing to pass up the opportunity to see the results of their work.

Besides, fleeing the scene of the crime too quickly would probably just make them look guilty, and thus easier to spot. They were actually being clever, hanging around to watch their work unfold. They’d split up though. The organisation was looking for them together, and they blended a lot better separately. Kudo had disappeared into a children’s play park, and melted into the screaming chaotic mass of small children that made it hard for parents to even spot their own children. Heiji had gone to grab a bite to eat. They’d be leaving Osaka soon enough, he might as well stock up on decent food.

What happened next was pure bad luck.

“Heiji.” An all too familiar voice, spoke up. Heiji looked up to see Kazuha staring at him in utter shock. He cursed. Of all the luck. Of course Kazuha would randomly happen to walk into the same café he was trying to lay low in.

“Kazuha. What the hell are you doing here?” If in doubt, go on the offensive.  Maybe it would distract her enough that she’d forget to murder him.

“I could ask you the same question. Where have you _been_ Heiji. The news has been calling you a terrorist. What’s going on? They said you blew up a government facility.” She looked… worried. He hated the thought that he’d put that look on her face. He should lie, he should lie, and walk away now, but her gaze had him pinned in place and he never was much of a liar. So he told the truth, some of it at least.

“Yeah I blew that place up.” He said with something dark and angry in his eyes. Images flashing through his memory, of bodies, and test tubes, and bloodied scalpels, details she didn’t need to know.

“What.” She gasped. He looked her dead in the eyes as he replied.

“You don’t know what they were doing in that place Kazuha. You don’t know and I’m not gonna tell you ‘cause theres some things you’re better off not knowing. But I will tell you I pulled Kudo out of that place, and I blew it up on the way out, and I _don’t_ regret it. There’s some things in this world that ought to be burned to the ground, and that place was one of them.” Just then, the explosives finally went off, and everyone in the area turned to look at where the noise came from, to see what had happened.

Everyone except Heiji. After all, he already knew what had happened. By the time Kazuha turned back to look at him, he was already gone. He couldn’t drag her into this. He’d told her enough, more than enough, and it was far past time for him to pick up Kudo and get the hell out of town.

Kudo was going to be so pissed when he found out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heiji is only wearing the absolute minimum of disguise when he runs into Kazuha because he's come straight from trashing the org's lab, and they want the org to know it's them.  
> That confrontation with Kazuha was actually the very first thing I wrote for this fic. The rest of it sort of followed on from there.  
> Kazuha is very very angry with Heiji for disappearing on her just now. There will be consequences.


	7. Common sense and special kinds of idiot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazuha wants answers. Heaven help anyone who tries to stand in her way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kazuha's best friend is a wanted terrorist. He has confessed as much to her. She wants to know why. And then she wants to fix whatever awful mess Heiji's got himself into this time. She's sure Ran chan will be happy to help.

Kazuha was _not_ happy. Her childhood friend was, missing, on the run, wanted for terrorism, and she wanted _answers._ She knew just where to get them too. If she could just get her hands on Heiji he’d fold like wet paper. He never was much of a liar, and their recent encounter proved that much hadn’t changed. If she just had a chance to interrogate him properly, she could get the truth out of him.

The trouble lay in catching him. He’d disappeared into thin air, or so it seemed, the police couldn’t find him, the media couldn’t find him, Hattori Heiji remained at large, and Kazuha had _no idea_ where to find him. That unexpected encounter in the café was the first time she’d seen him since that news report went out, and it had left her with more questions than answers. She could still remember that report. One moment she’d been minding her own business, only half listening to the news on the TV, and then suddenly her whole world had fallen apart.

She hadn’t believed it of course, not at first. Heiji would _never_ do something like that. But the fact that it was even suspected. That Heiji was a wanted criminal, and that _no-one_ could _find_ him, that was terrifying in ways she still hadn’t quite been able to pin down. And then the details had started to trickle out, and the evidence looked more and more damning, some of that stuff was _hard_ to fake, she was a policeman’s daughter, she knew. She knew Heiji couldn’t have actually done it, but whatever was actually going on it was _serious._

And no-one would tell her anything. Not her father, not Heiji’s father, and she knew they knew more than they were saying. It was obvious in the hushed conversations, and the questions that they shut down before she even finished asking them. Something was going on, with Heiji, and Kudo kun, and little Conan kun, and no-one was telling her anything.

And then she’d run into Heiji at that café and things had suddenly got a whole lot worse. Because he always had been a terrible liar, and so she knew he was telling the truth when he admitted to the things they were accusing him of. And the _look_ in his eyes when he said it, she’d never seen him look like that before, she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to again. Haunted, that was the word, and given the things she _knew_ Heiji had seen in the course of his detective work, anything that could make him look like that must have been _bad_.

And so now she was living in a world where Heiji _could_ be a terrorist, where he _was_ a terrorist, and she felt like she knew even less about what was going on than she had before. Heiji had disappeared after an explosion that she only realised too late he must have set, and Kazuha wasn’t sure whether to be angry, or sad, or deathly afraid, for Conan kun, for Heiji, for herself.

That _idiot._ Running off alone like always, making her worry. He was in trouble, and she didn’t know enough to help him and it _burned,_ like ice in her chest. She wondered if this was how Ran chan felt all the time, with Kudo kun’s disappearance.

It must be even worse now, because Kudo kun was right up there with Heiji on the evening news. Partners in crime and whatever was going on he was in it up to his _neck._ Conan kun too, for all the newspapers claimed he was a hostage, Kazuha knew that kid, and he was just as bad as Heiji, she was fully confident he was an active and willing participant in whatever was going on. Poor Ran chan must be worried sick.

Those idiots had got themselves into some serious trouble. That much was obvious from what Heiji had let slip, and even more obvious from what he’d _refused_ to say. Kazuha wasn’t stupid, she might not be a famous detective but she could connect the dots. Heiji had taken Kudo kun out of a government lab, and set it on fire on the way out, and wouldn’t even _talk_ about what they were doing there. They’d been experimenting on Kudo kun, and she’d seen enough movies to draw a picture.

It didn’t sound real. It wasn’t the sort of thing that actually happened to people, not outside of a certain type of tv show. But she’d seen that look in Heiji’s eyes, she knew it was the truth. And if Heiji hadn’t gone to the police it had to be because the police were involved, and if the newspapers were calling for Heiji’s head on a spike it must be because the media were compromised, and she wondered just who was left to turn to, how far this, whatever it was went. She didn’t sleep well that night, or for many nights after.

But stronger than fear was the anger, the frustration, that Heiji had disappeared, and hadn’t even told her he was in trouble. That he hadn’t asked for her help. He had to know she would have given it to him, which meant that he must be trying to protect her again. Kazuha was _not_ impressed. She was not helpless. She had spent the last decade becoming an expert in aikido precisely because Heiji kept getting in over his head, and she refused to stand on the sidelines and let him get hurt.

Enough, it had been weeks of worrying and doing nothing, and Ran must have the patience of a _saint_ to have put up with this from Kudo kun for so long, because Kazuha couldn’t take it anymore. First she was going to find Heiji, then she was going to _make_ him tell her everything, then she was going to _fix_ whatever mess he’d gotten himself into this time, because heavens knew that idiot probably wouldn’t be able to fix it himself.

She knew just who to go to for backup as well. There was one person in the world who knew _exactly_ how she was feeling, someone who was being kept just as much in the dark as Kazuha was, someone she was _sure_ would have some pointed questions of her own for the other idiot detective caught up in this mess. It was probably cruel, but Kudo kun _definitely_ had it coming, and _Kazuha_ knew when to ask for help _._ She made the phone call.

“Hey Ran chan. How do you feel about tracking down those idiots and _making_ them explain themselves.” She said with a vicious smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus the girls enter play. They will be working both to try and figure out where the boys went, and to work out what the hell they're running from. They will be stirring up a lot of trouble, because they might think they are more sensible than the boys but they're really not.  
> And bear in mind both Kazuha and Ran still think Shinichi and Conan are separate people. When they find out otherwise, and they will, there will be trouble.


	8. Old rivals and new allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tantei kun's disappearance was a wakeup call for the Kaitou Kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Conan and Heiji's combined bad luck has them stumbling into a Kid heist. It's just a miracle no dead bodies have showed up yet. Kaito is just relieved to see Tantei kun alive.

There was an edge to heists now, that hadn’t been there before Tantei kun had disappeared. He’d known what he was doing was dangerous of course, how could he not. Snipers at heists were a pretty obvious indication. But it wasn’t until Tantei kun had disappeared, that he’d fully understood how far over his head he really was.

Because he knew who had made Tantei kun disappear, he knew that the police would probably never even find a body, and he knew bone deep, that if they’d been able to find Tantei kun, even with his built in disguise, it was only a matter of time before they caught up to him. It wasn’t like the pieces were _hard_ to put together.

But he couldn’t stop now. Especially not now. They’d killed Tantei kun. Maybe there wasn’t a body, but Kaito had known better than to hope, and he’d _respected_ Tantei kun. He deserved better than an unmarked grave and killers that walked away free and clear.

Kaito wasn’t a detective. He couldn’t track down Tantei kun’s killers and hold them to account. But then, Tantei kun had already tried the detective way and it had gotten him killed.  He couldn’t give Tantei kun justice. All he could offer was revenge, and that was all tied up in the dangerous games he was playing with the organisation. So he couldn’t stop, even if he wanted to, even if fear were enough to make him hesitate.

And it wasn’t, it never would be, because he’d made his choice when he first put on that white suit and it was far too late to turn back now. But still there was an edge to the heists now that hadn’t been there before, he still loved it of course, the show, and the exhilaration, and the _freedom_ of it, but now he knew, in a way he hadn’t really accepted before. That one day it would kill him, that every heist he was only a hair’s breadth away from death. That one day they would come for him, just like they had for Tantei kun.

He’d started to distance himself from Aoko after that. From Aoko and anyone else he could manage. No sense bringing innocent bystanders down with him. He’d cut back on his civilian life and stepped up his crusade, because there was an urgency to his mission now that hadn’t been there before.

His heists went much more smoothly now without Tantei kun to interfere. He _hated_ it.

And then had come that news announcement that turned everything on its head. Tantei kun was alive. Something eased in his chest at the thought of Tantei kun, alive and _free._ It was a good thing Kaito was alone at home because it had been enough to make him break poker face.

The news reports were saying Kudo Shinichi was a dangerous terrorist, that Edogawa Conan was his hostage, that Hattori Heiji was equally dangerous and anyone with any information on any of them should alert the police immediately. But Kaito knew how to read between the lines, Tantei han had got Tantei kun out of wherever the organisation had been holding him, and now they were on the run.

His heist that night had been hopeful in a way he hadn’t been able to manage since Tantei kun first went missing.

…

Three weeks after Kid found out Tantei kun was alive, he finally ran into him. At a heist no less. Not exactly the most low profile place for a pair of wanted fugitives to hang around, but he supposed they were at least staying out of sight.

“My my Tantei kun. You do seem to be in a spot of trouble at the moment don’t you?” The way they stiffened at the realisation he’d sneaked up on them was its own reward. “Don’t worry, I won’t turn you in, but I feel I should point out that if you want to pass for an old man you really shouldn’t stand so straight Tantei han.”

“What do you want Kid?” Tantei kun asked.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question Tantei kun? After all, you have shown up unannounced at one of my heists. It’s not exactly a low profile event.” Tantei han winced slightly.

“Would you believe us if we said it was an accident? We’ve been kind of out of the loop, and we didn’t know there was a heist on.” Kaito considered for a moment.

“Actually with your luck I can actually believe that. Have either of you ever considered visiting an exorcist.” Tantei kun just gave him a sour look. “Really though Tantei kun, terrorism? And you used to try and arrest _me._ My how times change.”

“I’m kind of low on options.” Tantei kun snapped, “I can’t go to the law, they’re everywhere, they’re in the police, and the government, and, the courts, they _own_ the law. What else can I do? I tried to fight them with detective work and the legal system and look what happened.” Kaito sobered for a moment.

“It’s good to see you alive Tantei kun. I thought they’d killed you. It’s not like those guys are known for taking prisoners.” And for once he didn’t smile, didn’t put that layer of protection between himself and the world. Tantei kun had earned his honesty.

“Wait, you _know_ about those guys?” It seemed Tantei han was out of the loop.

“They like to shoot at me at heists.” Kaito kept his tone light and easy, waved it off as insignificant. This was neither the time nor place for exchanging tragic backstories. They all knew the important things, that the organisation existed, that it was an enemy to them all, that it would kill them if it could. Anything else was just details. “I take it Tantei kun dragged you into all this.”

“I dragged myself into it.” Tantei han said sharply, “I chose to get involved and I don’t regret it.”

“Even though you’re a wanted criminal now?” Kaito knew the answer, he _wanted_ to see Tantei han’s reaction to the question. He didn’t know him the way he did Tantei kun, and Tantei san, and one of the quickest way of getting a person’s measure was to push hard and try and provoke a reaction. Interestingly Tantei han’s famous temper didn’t make an appearance. He was totally calm as he responded, solid as a rock.

“Yeah. I did the right thing, and I can live with the consequences, I was prepared to live with far worse.” Kaito considered for a moment before nodding. Tantei han had rescued Tantei kun when Kaito had written him off for dead, had sacrificed pretty much everything to do so. He’d more than earned Kaito’s respect.

“Ok.” He snapped his fingers and made a neat white business card appear between his fingers, and fixed a serious gaze on the detectives. “There’s a working email address here, if there’s resources you need that I can get you, then use it to ask. I can’t make any promises but I’ll try. And…” He hesitated for a moment, “There’s a phone number as well. For emergencies. If you really need my help, if its _important,_ call it. I’ll come. Even if I have to blow my own cover to do it.”

“Kid.” Breathed Tantei kun, no for this he was Shinichi, and it was obvious Kaito had caught him off guard. He gave a faint and crooked grin.

“No-one gets hurt remember. You got hurt, I thought you were dead. I thought that they’d killed you and I hadn’t been able to do anything to stop them. I thought I’d _failed_ again. I’d really rather not repeat the experience.” In the end it was Tantei han who took the card.

“We’ll send you some of the information we’ve gathered, maybe you’ll be able to make some use of it.” Tantei han grinned. “After all, having more angles of attack can only be a good thing.” Kaito grinned back, vicious as a shark and tipped his hat towards his detectives.

In the next moment Kid vanished. Lingering too long carried a risk of attracting unfriendly attention, and that was something none of them could afford at this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah I figured Shinichi's disappearance would probably be fairly alarming to one of the few other people who knows exactly what the org is capable of. They weren't working together, but they've figured out enough of each other's secrets over the years that Kaito knows who dissapeared him, and that he's probably next.  
> The reason Kaito didn't try to get Shinichi out is that he, not unreasonably assumed Shinichi was already dead, and no-one involved with the rescue had any way to contact Kid or any reason to do so.  
> Kaito is currently unaware of the details of Shinichi's imprisonment.  
> At some point Heiji and Conan are going to start running into dead bodies again, and have to figure out a way to solve them without getting recognised and arrested.


	9. Difficult decisions and unconditional trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neither Shinichi, nor Heiji is doing as well as they pretend. But the universe is done cutting them a break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which the inevitable consequences of Heiji and Shinichi spending time together make themselves apparent again, and the boys are not taking about what happened in the lab.

It said something about his life. Shinichi thought, when the only surprising thing about dead bodies falling out of the sky was that it hadn’t happened sooner. He’d been travelling with Hattori for _weeks_. Usually they couldn’t go more than a couple of _hours_ without running into a corpse, or having one fall on them from a height. Maybe the whole wanted fugitive thing had been enough bad fortune to let the universe cut them a break for a while.

Whatever it was it looked like the break was over and their combined bad luck was back in action, because a man had just been thrown out of a fourth story window. Not that the fall was what killed him. Shinichi rather suspected the gunshot wound to the head had done that. Another day another murder. Shinichi wondered whether to be worried about the fact that the return to his usual routine was almost comforting, people being murdered really shouldn’t be reassuring. In the end he decided not to think about it too hard. After all he had bigger problems to worry about.

Like how the hell he and Hattori were going to solve this murder without getting themselves arrested. They couldn’t just let the killer go free of course but there was absolutely no way calling the cops would end well for them. It would take approximately five minutes for any competent cop to realise they were wearing disguises, and probably not much more than ten for them to make an educated guess about who was underneath the disguises. After all how many wanted fugitives, matching their broad descriptions and _known_ to be skilled detectives, could there be in this country. It was a problem.

_Identifying_ the murderer had been easy enough. The ex-girlfriend, and why did so many people feel the need to murder their exes. Whatever happened to just throwing their stuff out the window while screaming about what a worthless bastard they were. Why did people feel the need to escalate things so far? Identifying the murderer had been easy enough, and once they’d called her out she’d admitted to it quickly enough. In front of witnesses even. It would have been a quick open and shut case. If they hadn’t been fugitives. As it was, the police would probably be more worried about arresting _them,_ than the murderer.

So now they had a murderer bang to rights, and absolutely no idea what to do with her. They’d have to decide quickly though because Shinichi was pretty sure _someone_ must have called the cops by this point, and their disguises today would _not_ stand up to professional scrutiny.

Then Hattori suggested they do the batman thing. Shinichi had looked at the culprit, still ranting about how the victim had it coming, he’d looked at the bystanders who had clearly started to put two and two together and connect him and Hattori with the wanted fugitives on tv, and he’d heard the piercing sound of sirens in the distance, and he’d made a decision. They did the batman thing. In retrospect tying the culprit upside down to a lamp-post with a recording of her confession, probably wasn’t such a good idea as it had seemed at the time. But he stood by his decision, after all, even away from the heat of the moment he still couldn’t think of a more viable solution.

So it seemed that he and Hattori were now wanted terrorists _and_ vigilantes. It was almost embarrassing how quickly his life seemed to have spiralled out of his control. The way things were going, any day now they’d start dressing up in brightly coloured spandex and calling out their attacks, while battling the forces of evil with the power of love and friendship. Somewhere, he just _knew_ Haibara was laughing at him.

…

It wasn’t until they were lying low in yet another cheap hotel room that he noticed, Hattori wasn’t doing as well as he’d thought. He’d been fine at the murder scene, in the middle of the deduction. That was an old and familiar pattern to fall into, and while it was happening they’d almost been able to forget the weight of recent events.

No, it was after, when they had time to think, and no task directly in front of them, that Hattori had started acting… off. Distant, shut off, _haunted_ in a way that the most brutal murder scenes couldn’t make him look. _Something_ about the case was bothering him.

“Oi Hattori. What’s wrong?” It was always best to be direct with Hattori.

“Nothing. M’fine Kudo.” Hattori was _not_ convincing. Shinichi gave him the most sceptical look he could manage. “It’s just. That was the first time I’d seen a dead body since…” Hattori trailed off. No need to finish that sentence.

“There were dead bodies in that place.” Shinichi asked without thinking, and then wanted to hit himself. Of _course_ there were bodies. He was nearly one of them. He knew there must have been others, other subjects there, and he also knew that if any of them had still been alive, Hattori would have got them out as well. He hadn’t, which meant there _must_ have been bodies. From the look in Hattori’s eyes he’d seen all too many of them.

“Don’t ask me about that Kudo. I don’t want to talk about that right now.” Hattori’s voice was dead serious and there were shadows in his eyes that Shinichi wasn’t feeling quite brave enough to disturb. Not when there were so many things about _that place_ that Shinichi himself really didn’t want to talk about.

Just then a knock came on the door, and Shinichi’s fears blazed into overwhelming, all encompassing, utterly irrational, life. Memories too close to the surface, death too close for comfort, and now, someone intruding on their hiding place, and all he could think was _theyfoundmetheyfoundmetheyfoundme oh kami please no, not again, can’t go back._ He couldn’t quite breathe, and he felt suddenly, painfully sick to the stomach. Huh, so that was what a panic attack felt like.

He didn’t know exactly how long he was frozen like that, shaking and trying to breathe. Just that at some point Hattori had pulled him into a rough, manly hug, and started speaking in soft calm tones.

“It’s fine, I’m here, they haven’t found us, they won’t find us. It was just housekeeping, just the cleaner, she’s gone now, you’re safe, you’re safe, you’re safe. I won’t let them take you again, I promise, I’ll _kill_ them first.” And there was no lie and no doubt in his tone, as Shinichi managed to regain control of his breathing. For someone so emotionally oblivious, Hattori was good at reassuring people when they needed it.

Shinichi was suddenly and intensely glad that he wasn’t alone on this insane quest. Hattori had his back, would always have his back, and would trust Shinichi to have _his_ back.

“So where do you suppose we should hit next.” Shinichi asked, with a shark’s grin, a distraction and an offer of thanks, all in one question. Hattori took the offer in the spirit it was meant and sent back a matching grin.

“Well, there’s a few options.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Shinichi had a panic attack and Heiji is having flashbacks, and neither of them is willing to talk about their problems. Oh and bodies have started falling from the sky again.


	10. Open minds and common sense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazuha and Ran are on a mission. There's nowhere Shinichi and Heiji can hide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ran has a brainwave on how to track those detective idiots. She and Kazuha are going to find them and beat the truth out of them.

Shinichi had a _lot_ of explaining to do. First he disappeared for nearly a year, with only sporadic visits and a series of _deeply_ suspicious phone calls to reassure Ran that he wasn’t dead. Then Conan kun had vanished and Shinichi had stopped answering his phone, and now, now he was on the evening news and everyone was saying he was a _terrorist_ of all things.

He wasn’t. He couldn’t be. She refused to believe it. But a dark little whisper at the back of her mind wondered, could she really say that for certain, did she even know Shinichi any more. And he _still_ wasn’t answering his phone and the news was saying that Conan was with him, but Conan wasn’t answering either, and Ran was _afraid._ For both of them.

And then she got a phone call from Kazuha chan, saying that she’d seen Heiji kun, that he’d _confessed_ to the terrorism, that he and Shinichi really had done what everyone said they had. That on its own had been a lot to process. She didn’t want to believe it, but Kazuha chan wouldn’t lie to her, not about this, and she sincerely doubted Heiji kun could successfully lie to Kazuha. It wasn’t a lie which meant it was true. Shinichi was a terrorist, Shinichi and Conan kun, because she knew better than to think he was just a hostage. Conan kun _idolized_ Shinichi, there was no way he wouldn’t be doing everything he could to help him. It had almost been more than she could handle but she forced herself to keep listening. She owed Kazuha chan that much.

Then Kazuha chan said that there was more. That Heiji kun was _hiding_ something from her, was in some kind of trouble that he wouldn’t talk about. _Bad_ trouble, bad enough that he looked afraid just thinking about it, and Ran could count on one hand the number of times that she’d seen Heiji kun truly afraid. And if Heiji was in trouble, that meant Shinichi and Conan were too, and that thought sent a cold chill down her spine. It didn’t help that Heiji had taken the first opportunity to disappear again, had left Kazuha with more questions than answers and an entirely justified sense of paranoia.

But Kazuha had a plan. That was why she’d called Ran in the first place. She was going to track Heiji down and _make_ him talk, and she wanted Ran to help her. Partly because she wanted the backup, partly because she was sure Ran had at _least_ as many questions to ask Shinichi as Kazuha did for Heiji.

It had barely taken a moment to decide. Ran was tired of waiting, and increasingly sceptical of Shinichi’s ability to get himself out of trouble. For a year she’d trusted him to deal with whatever it was that had led him to disappear, told herself that he was a big boy and could handle his own problems. Then this happened. Clearly she’d been wrong, Shinichi couldn’t handle his own problems, and neither, by the looks of things could Heiji kun. The boys had got themselves into trouble, _again,_ and now she and Kazuha chan were going to go and pull them out of it again, and this time the would make them _regret_ trying to keep it a secret. Part of Ran wondered why she hadn’t just done this sooner.

They met up in Osaka, in the last place Kazuha had seen Heiji, and tried to put together what had happened. Ran focused on the scene as she tried to match it to Kazuha’s detailed account of th encounter.

“..and then he disappeared when the bomb went off. I suppose in retrospect he must’ve set it.” Kazuha finished her description of events. That was the point where Ran gave up, she wasn’t Shinichi, wasn’t a detective, and trying to track him like one would get her nowhere.

“We’re looking at this from the wrong angle. We’re not detectives, there’s no way we’re going to be able to track those idiots this way. Even the police don’t seem to be having much luck tracking them this way.” She was thinking out loud as much as anything, but Kazuha chan seemed willing to listen so she carried on. “There’s lots of people much more skilled than we are, looking at things from this angle, and they’re getting no-where. We need to track something the police can’t, or won’t.”

“It’s a shame we can’t just track the combined bad luck. Seriously, we should take them to an exorcist or something because that sort of thing can’t be natural.” Ran had to agree, there was something deeply wrong with the sheer number of dead bodies all three of those boys ran into. Actually, Ran let that thought catch at her attention, there was something about that idea that might, just, work.

“Maybe we _can_ track their bad luck.” She mused out loud, she didn’t miss the way Kazuha chan focused in on her words, “Or at least we can track the results of it.”

“What’re you thinking?” Kazuha chan said, with cautious interest, and a vicious sort of determination.

“What happens whenever Conan kun and Heiji kun spend any amount of time together?”

“Bodies fall from the sky.” Kazuha chan responded dryly. Ran just waited and watched while Kazuha thought that over. She could _see_ the realisation dawning on Kazuha’s face, realisation followed by excitement, and she grinned in fierce satisfaction, as Kazhua chan slotted the pieces together. “You’re saying we shouldn’t look for them at all, we should just look for murders linked to falling.” Ran always knew Kazuha was smart. The two of them might not be detective geniuses but they knew how to spot a pattern, and they weren’t so tied up in logic that they couldn’t follow it.

“With special emphasis on the ones solved by unknown detectives, or caught by vigilantes. Because you _know_ none of those mystery idiots would just walk by a crime without trying to solve it.” Kazuha chan’s answering grin was a terrifying thing to behold.

“We have them.” She snickered gleefully, “There’s no way Heiji and the others can hide from us now.”

“No they can’t. And when we catch them, they will have _so much_ explaining to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kazuha and Ran don't yet know that Conan and Shinichi are the same person. Neither does the general public, but the Black org does, as well as the FBI, and a few other people.  
> And yep, they're tracking the boys by following the trail of dead bodies.


	11. Inconvenient encounters and hasty escapes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heiji and Shinichi have a very bad day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The boys screw up, the girls make progress, and Haibara is going to laugh at all of them.

Heiji suspected the fact that his first reaction to a dead body falling off a bridge and nearly landing on him was, “Oh no not again”, was probably an indication that there was something seriously wrong with his life. Although actually, the fact that the falling corpses weren’t the most serious problem in his life right now was probably even more worrying.

It had at least, been simple enough to solve. Simple enough that, he and Kudo hadn’t even had to chase down the suspects, just stay under the radar and drop a few hints to the investigating officers and let them take the credit. Which was a relief because they still had business to attend to before they could skip town.

The raid this time was on a safehouse rather than a lab, but the little Neesan really wanted the payroll lists stored there, something about figuring out who was being bribed with what. Heiji wasn’t really listening. The point was they were supposed to break into the supposedly empty safehouse, copy the files, leave hidden cameras in strategic locations, and then leave without any evidence they’d actually been there.

It probably could have gone more smoothly. The plan this time had been to bug the safehouse rather than setting it on fire, but things had not gone according to plan. In their defence they really hadn’t expected it to be occupied. The only real comfort was that the organisation grunts that had been laying low with large quantities of junk food, alcohol, and back episodes of Okino Yoko’s greatest hits, had been just as surprised by the encounter as he and Kudo had been.

Honestly the whole thing had been pretty embarrassing from both sides. Heiji and Kudo had accidentally walked right into a room full of the very people they were on the run from, while the organisation members had been caught with their pants down. Quite literally in one case, and Heiji could quite happily have gone his entire life without seeing a member of the black organisation lounging around on the sofa in his boxers. It had taken a good few minutes before anyone had managed to react. The first person to shake off the shock had been one of the organisation members, who had grabbed for his gun, quickly followed by Heiji who had grabbed Kudo and ducked behind the sofa for cover.

After that it all descended into chaos, there was gunfire, and spilled drinks, and somehow the TV got shot in such a way as to cause an electrical fire, which spread to the vodka soaked carpet. It ended with the destruction of a whole row of houses, and everyone involved taking advantage of the confusion to make a hasty retreat. Not their finest hour. They hadn’t even got the files they were sent after. The little Neesan was never going to let them hear the end of this, he could already hear the jokes about knocking before they walked in on people. She already had a nasty habit of mocking them for their developing pyromaniac tendencies, after this she was just going to be insufferable.

The day just kept getting worse though, because while they were sitting trying to calm their nerves in the station café, waiting for their train to arrive, Heiji saw Kudo go pale under his makeup.

“Don’t look now Hattori, but Ran and Kazuha just got off the train from Osaka.” Heiji went tense.

“That’s not funny Kudo.” He responded flatly.

“I’m not joking.” Kudo looked almost as panicked as Heiji felt. Almost. At least in his chibi form it was unlikely Ran would beat him to death, Heiji had no such protection from Kazuha.

“What the hell are they doing _here?_ ”

“How the hell should I know. Our bad luck?” As explanations went it made more sense than Heiji would like. But still, a sinking feeling in his stomach told Heiji there was more than just bad luck in play here.

“We should follow them.” They were after all in pretty solid disguises, the girls _probably_ wouldn’t figure out it was them, as long as they didn’t get too close, and it might be good to see what they were doing.

“What are you crazy? We should leave now.” Kudo clearly thought otherwise.

“Aren’t you curious? Don’t you at least want to see how Ran’s been doing after your dissapearence?”. The guilt trip was a bit of a low blow, but really it was for his own good. Heiji knew Kudo was at least as keen to check up on the girls as he was, he was just trying too hard to be the voice of reason. About six different conflicted expressions flitted across Kudo’s face before he settled on reluctant agreement. Heiji knew he’d get his way in the end. Kudo was a terrible voice of reason.

“Fine. But I’m telling you now this is a _bad plan.”_ Kudo said, with all the conviction of someone already planning their “I told you so” speech.

“That’s what you said about the petrol bombs.” Heiji pointed out.

“And I was _right.”_ Kudo snapped back. Clearly the situation was getting to him, seeing the girls, not being able to talk to the girls. It was stressful, and the fact that the girls were probably planning t murder them was fairly nerve wracking.

“It worked didn’t it. It took out that transport truck.” Kudo just gave him a look, as though he hadn’t enjoyed the explosion just as much as Heiji had.

“Yes along with three lanes of motorway and half the central reservation.” Heiji just shrugged, better overkill than underkill in their situation.

“And the distraction helped us get away more easily.” Kudo tried to formulate a response, and then gave up.

“Fine. Whatever. This is still a bad plan.”

“Yeah, yeah. Oh look they’re making a phone call. How are you at lip-reading?”

“Good enough.” Kudo admitted. “They’re calling the local police station. Blah blah, polite small talk, oh, oh shit.” Kudo stopped, panic flickering through his eyes.

“What, what are they saying.”

“They’re looking for us. They’re asking about that dead body we found this morning, and they’re asking if anyone matching our descriptions was at the scene.” Kudo sounded halfway between panic and disbelief, Heiji knew the feeling, that was just _creepy._

“How the hell did they know we were there?”

“I don’t know. But I think I want to leave town now. Our train leaves in five minutes anyway.” Heiji didn’t resist when Kudo grabbed his wrist and dragged him away. The girls had found some way to track them. They were so dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been about a month or so on the run, there have been several attacks against the org, and several random bodies, since the last instalment. There has also been no talking about feelings.  
> Next episode we see what Hakuba has been up to.


	12. Bad press and in depth analysis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saguru is a very good detective, and the situation with Kudo and Hattori just doesn't add up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Saguru works some things out. Kaito is hiding something, and there is something more sinister than a pair of teenaged terrorists in play.

It didn’t quite add up. Kudo Shinichi and Hattori Heiji were wanted for terrorism, murder, and the kidnapping of Edogawa Conan, and the whole situation was making the hairs on the back of Saguru’s neck stand up. The same instincts that made him hesitate before running into one of Kid’s traps, that looked into a seemingly safe room and screamed danger, they were telling him that something wasn’t right. The evidence was all there, almost too convincing, but still, Saguru didn’t quite trust it.

He _knew_ Hattori, not well, but enough to know that nothing about this was in character for him. The detective of the west might be a hothead, but he was no criminal, and while Saguru had never met Kudo Shinichi in person, he knew enough of his reputation to know that something didn’t fit. Something wasn’t right about all of this, and he knew he wasn’t the only one thinking it, could hear it loud and clear in the things the police officers who _had_ known Kudo, didn’t say, in the worried looks, and the tension in the air whenever the subject came up on the news. Something was very wrong about the situation, and no-one was saying it out loud. It screamed of secrets, and corruption, and Saguru _needed_ to know.

Kuroba knew something. Kuroba had known something from the moment Edogawa Conan had gone missing, a full month before the rest of it had blown up. He covered it well, but Saguru could see the signs, Edogawa’s disappearance had Kuroba running scared. He’d seen it in the way Kuroba tried to distance himself, tried to loosen his ties to anyone that might care, in the way he always sat near the window, and constantly scanned for threats. He’d actually relaxed a little when the terrorist situation hit the news, not by much, but a little, and that only confirmed Saguru’s suspicions that he knew something.

Of course Saguru would have better luck trying to get water out of a stone than getting Kuroba to give up a secret he’d promised to keep. Whatever Kuroba knew, he wasn’t talking, wouldn’t talk, would probably die before he talked.

But there were more ways of finding answers than asking questions. Sometimes, what was needed was to take a step back, and examine what was already known.

Hattori Heiji, Kudo Shinichi, Edogawa Conan. This whole thing was centred around them somehow. So what did he know? Saguru grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing a timeline. It started with Edogawa Conan’s disappearance, so he wrote that down at the top of the sheet. Edogawa Conan disappears, Kuroba Kaito’s behaviour changes, signs of fear. Conclusion, Kuroba knew, or at least thought he knew what had happened to Edogawa, and believed that he might be next. Why, was it to do with Kid? Saguru tapped his pencil before moving on.

Next, a month later, Hattori Heiji and Kudo Shinichi are declared wanted terrorists, Edogawa is believed to be in their custody. Kuroba’s behaviour changes again. Relief? Possibly at the evidence Edogawa was alive. Possibly at the information that he was with Kudo and Hattori rather than whoever Kuroba had believed he was with. Saguru thought about that some more. Hattori had been at home in Osaka for a month after Edogawa’s initial disappearance, if he had been responsible for kidnapping him, where had he been keeping him? True, Kudo could have had him, but even if that was so, why would the two of them just sit around for a month after making their move before going on the offensive.

Take it apart, what were the facts. Edogawa went missing, then a month later, Kudo Shinichi, and Hattori Heiji destroyed a building and were seen in the company of Edogawa. Hattori and Edogawa were close, Saguru knew that for certain, and Kudo was generally believed to be Edogawa’s cousin. Suddenly the pieces came together.

If Saguru assumed that Edogawa kun’s initial kidnapping had been performed by an unknown third party, and that the incident that got Hattori and Kudo labelled terrorists was in fact a rescue, things started to make a horrifying amount of sense. In fact the more he thought about it the more details fit. The subsequent attacks made sense if they were targeted at the same organisation that had taken Edogawa.

And it had to be an organisation Saguru realised, because the police were hunting Hattori and Kudo like dogs, and the media was blackening their names, and the evidence was just too clean. It all pointed to the kind of wide scale corruption that took money, and power, and influence that only organised crime could achieve.

But that still left one question. _Why_ take Edogawa. The boy was brilliant for his age, a truly talented detective, but he was a _child,_ what use could they possibly have for him. He was too high profile to be a tempting target for human trafficking, and not well connected enough for ransom, and a child was unlikely to have any information they couldn’t easily get through other means.

Saguru stepped back again. What did he know about Edogawa Conan? The kid was smart, uncannily so, he was living with the Sleeping Kogoro, and… he was Kudo Shinichi’s cousin. Kudo Shinichi who had been a very hard man to find over the last year. In fact, only three people had admitted to being in regular contact with Kudo recently. Mouri Ran, Hattori Heiji, and Edogawa Conan.

So maybe it wasn’t about Edogawa at all. Maybe it was actually about getting to Kudo. Which put Kudo’s mysterious absence into a whole new light. Which meant all of this didn’t start with Edogawa’s disappearance at all, it started with Kudo’s. He scribbled that in at the top of the page.

But that didn’t explain how Kuroba fit into it all. What did Kuroba know, why did he know it, what was Kid’s connection to all this. Then it hit him, like a blow to the stomach. Snipers on the rooftops at Kid heists, they’d been hunting him all along. Saguru felt cold as he carefully edited the beginning of his timeline. Kaitou Kid reappears, snipers present at heists.

He looked at his analysis numbly. Whoever was behind this they were dangerous enough to force Kudo into hiding, ruthless enough to kidnap a child to get to him, well connected enough that Hattori hadn’t dared to risk asking for help from the police that his own father ran, and influential enough to get away with setting snipers at Kid heists and not raise any alarms in doing so.

How far did the corruption go? What could Saguru even do about it? Kuroba wouldn’t accept his help, and he had no idea how to contact Hattori or Kudo, or even if he should. After all, any contact might put their location at risk. Who could he trust?

Or maybe that was his answer. After all, unlike Hattori and Kudo he still had legal access to police files, and interacted regularly with the force. He was in a better position than them to try and figure out who could and could not be trusted.

And probably he was best suited for this. It wasn’t a task that would reward reckless moves, and he was naturally cautious, in a way that Hattori, and Kuroba, and by all reports Kudo, were not. Careful in a way that others mocked him for but might just be the difference between success and failure. He would have to be very, very careful, but maybe, just maybe he could help starting to unravel this spider’s web from the other side.

He burned his notes before leaving the room. It wasn’t paranoia if they really were out to get you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some outsider pov from Hakuba. He's going to start working out exactly who can actually be trusted in the police force, and start building a counter conspiracy.  
> Kaito is not happy about him putting himself in danger, but he can't really stop him.  
> Note that Hakuba still believes Conan and Shinichi are different people.


	13. Old arguments and adult responsibilities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes being an adult means setting aside your own feelings for the sake of the things that really matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ran is definitely up to something, but at least it should keep her out of the way while Kogoro looks into dangerous business.

Ran was almost certainly _not_ on a holiday to the beach with that Osakan girl. Kogoro’s daughter was many things, but she was not one of nature’s great liars. It certainly didn’t take a great detective to work it out. She was up to something that she didn’t want him to know about.

Admittedly it wasn’t a bad cover story. Kazuha chan did have a tendency to show up without warning and drag Ran off on expeditions, an unplanned beach holiday wouldn’t be out of character. It might have seemed a bit odd, them going off on a relaxing holiday with those detective brats and the freeloader in the amount of trouble they were in, but they could have explained it away as trying to distract themselves from their worry. The story wasn’t bad, just Ran’s delivery of it. She really wasn’t a very good liar.

Still, whatever mischief those girls were planning that they didn’t want their parents to know about it would at least get Ran out of Tokyo for a few weeks. Out of the way, out of the line of fire. So he turned a blind eye, and pretended not to notice the guilt in his daughter’s expression, and trusted to her good sense and skill at karate to keep her out of trouble, while he tried to find out just what kind of trouble the freeloader was in.

Because somehow, he’d ended up as the closest thing that kid had to an actual parent. Somehow, despite his best efforts he’d ended up _caring_ about the brat and his disappearance had hit like a punch to the gut. He’d tried to find him then, when he’d first disappeared, that was when he’d realised just how bad the situation had to be because someone had cleaned the scene, had wiped the cameras and hidden the evidence. Kogoro used to be a cop, he knew what it looked like when evidence was being hidden. And so he was left with no leads and no clues, and it didn’t take long for him to realise he was being watched, that _Ran_ was being watched, and he knew with a cold crawling certainty, that it was about Conan, that they were watching to make sure he didn’t find anything.

There was something going on that was bigger than one child’s disappearance, it had become increasingly clear, and he wouldn’t, couldn’t get Ran caught in the middle of it. Not Ran, not his daughter. But he couldn’t leave it be either, not when Conan was as close to being his kid as made no difference, not when whoever it was that had taken him thought nothing of vanishing a seven year old. So he’d kept looking, quietly, and kept what he found close to the chest, for fear of what his unkown opponents would do if they thought he knew something. Not that he _had_ found anything much, nothing but a whole series of empty spaces where the evidence should have been, not until a month had passed and suddenly the brat was all over the news. The relief at the confirmation Conan was alive had hit almost as hard as his disappearance had. Kogoro was a detective, he used to be a cop, he’d known the cold and brutal statistics for child kidnappings. Conan was in trouble still, of course he was, that brat usually was, but he was alive, and in one piece when Kogoro had _known_ how bad the odds were, and that _mattered._

The media claimed that Osaka brat and Shinichi had taken him, that they were now wandering across the country committing acts of terrorism, that they should both be considered armed and dangerous. They spun a convincing story, but Kogoro knew how unnaturally clean the scene had been when Conan first disappeared, how pieces of evidence had mysteriously disappeared, and leads melted away to nothing, those detective brats didn’t have the resources to do something like that, even if it had been the kind of thing they would do. No it hadn’t been them who took Conan.

Having said that though, they were definitely involved somehow. They had the brat now, that much was certain, and that meant, somehow they’d known where to find him. They knew something Kogoro didn’t about the situation, something that had them on the run, hiding from the police, and blowing up seemingly random buildings, something that had let them get the brat _back_ from whoever had taken him. They knew something, and they were in over their heads, and so Kogoro needed to get himself up to speed and figure out exactly what was going on. He had to help, because Ran loved Shinichi, and the Osaka brat was a decent enough kid, and Conan was his in all the ways that mattered, and that was what adults did when kids got themselves in over their heads.

The buildings were probably a good starting point. They seemed random, but clearly there was some connection between them, and there was one person Kogoro knew could help him figure out what it was. One person that he knew would be able to see what he saw, and he knew he could trust to be careful about it. And thanks to her work she had a different kind of access, a different perspective, they might need that before this investigation was done.

 It wasn’t an easy phone call to make, how could it be? So much had passed under that bridge. But some things mattered more than pride and hurt feelings. Conan kun was his kid really, even if admitting it was like drawing teeth, and as a parent, he would do whatever was necessary to help him. And even after everything that had passed between them, he still trusted Eri, believed in her integrity, and her determination, and her razor sharp brilliance. Despite all the bitterness, there was no-one in the world he could rely on more. So he waited until he was sure Ran was gone, and he phoned her.

“Eri. It’s Kogoro. I need your help.” And she must have picked up on the seriousness in his tone. Or maybe she’d just put together the reports on Conan’s disappearance with the fact that he’d swallowed his pride and called her for help, and guessed why he was calling. Either way she forwent the usual bitter comments.

“Tell me where to meet you and we’ll talk.” She said, and for once there was no accusation in her voice. She would help him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kogoro and Eri are going to try and trace the chain of ownership of all the labs and facilities Heiji and Shinichi have been destroying. It might incidentally fix their relationship.  
> Kogoro knows Ran is up to something with Kazuha, but having her out of the line of fire while he investigates things he knows are dangerous is worth turning a blind eye. He doesn't know they have such a reliable method for tracking the boys.


	14. Quiet moments and painful truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi and Heiji run out of excuses to hide from their issues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi and Heiji have to lie low for a while, the enforced idleness forces them to confront some of the subjects they've been carefully avoiding up to this point.

Shinichi could admit, they had, maybe, been cutting it a little fine for the last few missions, taken a few more risks than they really should have. But it had been disconcerting, and more than a little intimidating, realising that Ran and Kazuha were hunting them down, and it had been even more disconcerting and terrifying, realising just how effective they were at it. They were barely managing to stay one step ahead, and neither he nor Hattori could figure out how the hell they were tracking them.

It had them both on edge, and neither of them was a particularly good voice of reason at the best of times, so they may have pushed things a bit far. Which was why they were now camping in the wilderness in an attempt to shake off any pursuit, and make it harder for the organisation to figure out what they were planning next. It was Hattori’s idea, and despite the inescapable sinking feeling that something was about to go disastrously wrong, things had been quiet. It was after all, hard to find people in the wilderness. It was quiet and a part of Shinichi _hated_ that because it left altogether too much time for thought.

Ever since Hattori had rescued him, since he’d woken up free of that place, they’d been running, plotting, fighting, they hadn’t stopped to breathe, to process everything that had happened, and that had been at least half intentional, because along with the inescapable demands of being hunted there were things that neither of them was ready to think about. But now they were stopped, they’d had to stop, to try and break their trail, and keep the organisation from figuring out where they were headed next. They were stopped and now they had far too much time to think about things that neither of them wanted to.

The first day had been fine, they’d occupied themselves with setting up the campsite, and casual conversation, and they’d gone to sleep not long after laying out their sleeping bags, tired, they had after all been running on too little sleep recently. On the second day, well there there were too few distractions to bury themselves in, and so that was when the glaring gaps in their conversation, the unbearable weight of the things they didn’t say, started to become harder to ignore. They were both of them stubborn though, and all too good at avoiding difficult conversations, and so it wasn’t until the evening of the third day that they finally broke.

It was Hattori that broke first, surprisingly enough. Staring at the dark roof of their tent, unwilling to make eye contact.

“I killed someone Kudo.” He said, softly. “Not indirectly either. I mean, I wasn’t _trying_ to kill him, but I hit him over the head, and he went down, and I heard later that he never woke up again. Head injuries are tricky like that.”

“It was when you were getting me out wasn’t it?” Shinichi turned his head and looked at Hattori without flinching as he nodded slightly in confirmation. Killing wasn’t right, was never right, but Shinichi couldn’t condemn it either. Not when he still remembered bright lights, and white walls, and small bodies too much like his own. Not when he knew that the killing had been the price Hattori paid to rescue _him_ from that _._ A man had died so that Hattori could save him, and they’d both have to live with that. And in some ways it made the rescue seem more real. A bloodless escape would have been too good to be true. The real world didn’t work like that, wasn’t that easy, wasn’t that kind, and they both knew better. It would have taken the Kid’s own luck to get out of there clean, and neither of them had that kind of luck. So he didn’t flinch as he looked at Hattori, who had killed for his sake.

“Thank you.” He said, steadily, in a way he couldn’t quite feel. “I wish it hadn’t happened, I wish no-one had to die, but thank you. You saved me, you sacrificed everything to save me, and I’m not sorry you got me out.” Hattori breathed then, finally, a rasping sound of relief, and Shinichi knew, he’d needed that reassurance, needed to know Shinichi wouldn’t hate him for what he’d done. As if he ever could.

Shinichi couldn’t condemn Hattori for what he did, not when the situation had been so dire, and Shinichi honestly didn’t _know_ what he’d have done if their places had been reversed. But still the conversation bothered him, the reminder of just how close to the edge they were playing. At any point, it could happen again, at any point they might find themselves in cornered, in a position where they had to make that choice again. And at any point one or both of them could slip up, kill someone by accident, they were careful, but it was an ever present risk, fire, and explosives, and falling masonry were hard things to control.

And he wondered too, when all this was over, if they did win, and bring down the organisation, would they be able to go home like nothing happened. They had good reasons for what they were doing but, that didn’t mean it wasn’t illegal, didn’t mean they weren’t burning bridges they might not be able to rebuild. It wasn’t an easy thing to be confronted with, that Heiji could be tried for murder, that he was guilty of that, and a lot of other things besides, that Shinichi was in just as much trouble legally, that they could bring down the organisation and lay his nightmares to rest, and they still wouldn’t be able to go back to their lives.

And even if the law weren’t an issue, or the press for that matter, even if they could go home and be left alone, it still wouldn’t be the same. They wouldn’t be the same. They’d done too much, lived through too much, too many things they couldn’t forget, and the thought of sliding back into his old life like nothing happened, nothing changed, a part of him knew it was impossible. It was too late to pretend things were ok, if he was honest with himself it had been too late since that night in tropical land. It was part of why he was trying so hard to avoid thinking about what would happen after their self-appointed mission was finished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep,, the boys are finally talking about their problems, it's a miracle. Not all of their problems, admittedly, and not in nearly enough depth, but it's a step in the right direction. Of course when the camping trip is ended by the inevitable dead bodies they will immediately take two steps back towards denial and pretend this never happened, but still, it's good for them.  
> Next chapter is Heiji's POV and Shinichi's turn to admit to some of his trauma.


	15. Half healed wounds and brutal honesty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heiji and Shinichi have a long overdue conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heiji and Shinichi are finally forced to confront their problems. Then their camping trip is interrupted by the inevitable.

Heiji and Kudo were detectives, they’d made it their mission in life to uncover the truth. There was something deeply ironic, Heiji thought, in the fact that both of them found honesty so difficult. Telling Kudo what he did to get him out had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done. It wasn’t like he’d lied about it exactly, it wasn’t as though Kudo hadn’t at least suspected, Heiji wasn’t much of a liar, and Kudo was far too perceptive, far too good a detective, to have missed the signs. But there was a world of difference between suspicions, the things they both knew but hadn’t spoken of, and saying it out loud, no space left for denial.

Heiji was a murderer, and Kudo had been tortured, and they had been able to push aside those truths when they were too busy running and fighting to think about it. But hiding out in the wilderness, waiting, with nothing but each other and their own thoughts and the terrible uncomfortable silence, to keep them company, the truth was catching up to them both. They didn’t want to talk, but, stripped bare of excuses, there was no more denying that they needed to.

Heiji wasn’t sure why he’d chosen to speak first, except that Kudo had already lost so much of his own agency, so much of his control of his body, of his _life._ Heiji had walked into all this with eyes wide open, had made his own choices to walk into that facility, to kill that man, to become a wanted criminal, for better or worse it had at least been _his_ decisions. Whereas for Kudo, ever since that day at tropical land, his life had been a never ending litany of things done _to_ him, decisions made _for_ him. Instinct had whispered that Heiji being the first to break would help Kudo feel just a little more in control, just a little less helpless. Heiji would, and had, done far harder things for the sake of friendship.

Heiji had been right to trust his instincts. Kudo had visibly relaxed at the chance to be the one offering comfort, and support, at the reminder that Heiji saw him as an _equal._ And it had eased something tight and twisted in Heiji’s chest, knowing that Kudo didn’t hate him for what he’d done. Kudo had always hated murder, had never accepted killing as any kind of answer, and it had been a nagging fear that Heiji couldn’t shake, that Kudo would not be able to accept Heiji’s actions. It had been hard enough, living with that blood on his conscience, if Kudo had hated him it might just have been enough to break him.

But Kudo understood, he listened to the truth laid bare, impossible to ignore, and he hadn’t turned away. He didn’t _like_ it, but he didn’t blame Heiji, didn’t condemn him, had said he was _grateful_. Heiji hadn’t known how much he’d needed to hear that.

Heiji felt better, but the subject had Kudo’s eyes blank and distant with remembered horrors, and it was a stark reminder that Heiji wasn’t the only one with things he needed to talk about. Kudo clearly needed to talk, but Heiji didn’t push him, he’d lost more than enough agency already, he had a right to make his own decision on what to say and when.

And he did, it had been a good half hour of silence, but Kudo knew as well as Heiji that they couldn’t keep avoiding the subject for ever.

“They experimented on me.” He said softly, eyes fixed on the campfire. And it wasn’t exactly new information but the bleakness in his voice made it cut to the bone all over again, and Heiji cursed again that he hadn’t been able to get there sooner. Kudo didn’t look away from the fire once as he continued, laying out in brutal detail the things that had been done to him, at least those parts of it that he’d been conscious for.

He talked about the others, his fellow test subjects, and Heiji had told him about the bodies he’d found, how he wasn’t sure whether or not he was grateful to have been too late to do anything but bear witness, because all he could have offered was a clean death. Shinichi had closed his eyes for a moment at that confirmation of what he’d already half known to be true, before he continued.

Heiji couldn’t stop thinking about those bodies as Shinichi spoke of how it mostly hadn’t hurt, because he’d been too drugged up to feel much of anything, of the hazy drifting fear, and the detached feeling of horror as he watched them work, and the awful pervasive numbness that had almost been worse than pain.

Heiji wondered how many had died that way, numb and terrified under the organisation’s needles and knives, how easy it would have been for Kudo to join them. He wanted to burn something down. None of this was new, none of it was anything he hadn’t known, but hearing it out loud made it so very real. Heiji wanted to _burn_ something _down_ , and judging by the way Kudo was staring at the flames he was thinking the same thing. He soothed himself with the thought that a couple more days and they’d be able to leave the forest and go back to work.

It might not be a healthy coping mechanism, but it made him feel better.

…

They woke up late the next day, neither of them had slept well, half healed wounds ripped wide open again by the night’s discussions. Confronting it had been like disinfectant in a wound, it had hurt, and restarted the bleeding, but at the same time it had cleaned out the poison, kept it from festering. They’d be glad of that later he suspected, but for now they slept poorly, and woke late, and tried not to think about their nightmares.

They woke up late to the sound of screaming. It had taken a moment for them to realise what had happened, that it wasn’t just an echo left over from their dreams. To be fair, this area of the forest was _meant_ to be deserted, well off the beaten trail. What were the odds of running into a campsite turned murder scene.

A group of hikers had camped for the night not far from Heiji and Kudo’s hideout, and had been woken the next day when a dead body fell out of a tree onto their tent. More dead bodies falling from the sky. On second thoughts maybe they should have been more surprised it hadn’t happened _sooner._ There was a certain pattern to Kudo’s camping trips after all, and Heiji doubted his own presence had helped the situation.

Now they just had to figure out how to solve the crime without blowing their own covers. Kudo’s suggestion that they solve it from behind a tree and pose as forest spirits was uncomfortably tempting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So they've talked about feelings, confronted issues, and generally been mentally healthy. A murder was more or less inevitable. They will now go back to suppressing their issues under layers of pyromania and property damage.  
> They didn't pose as forest spirits in the end, mostly because they know Ai would never let them live it down. They posed as backpackers instead, and were horribly unconvincing.


	16. War games and dangerous secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ai reaches out to the Kid, Kaito sees an opportunity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haibara Ai, and Kuroba Kaito join forces. The world trembles.

There was a certain vicious satisfaction to be had in watching the news reports of the havoc Kudo and Hattori had been wreaking on the organisation’s operations. Proof that _they_ were not invincible, that for all their power and lack of care they could still be made to _bleed._ Kudo and Hattori had been going through their operations like a wrecking ball, destruction without finesse or subtlety, and Ai would be lying to herself if she tried to pretend she didn’t take a vicious sort of pleasure in that image.

But effective as their two man guerrilla war had been, far more effective than she ever could have hoped, there were times when more subtlety was called for. Times when going in and burning it all to the ground would do more harm than good, times when there was an advantage to making it look like they were never there. And for that, Kudo and Hattori were a little too… obvious. She’d learned her lesson on that one after the unforgettable incident when the boys walked in on a Black Organisation Okino Yoko movie marathon and ended up turning what was meant to be a simple surveillance mission into national news, _again._

And that, in the end, was why she’d contacted the Kid. She didn’t know the Kid, had only Kudo’s word that he could be trusted, but she knew his reputation, and _no-one_ knew where Kid was, or what he was doing until _he_ chose to let them know. She needed _someone_ who knew the meaning of discretion, and Kid fit the bill. Besides, Kudo was usually a pretty good judge of character.

There was of course, no need for a face to face meeting. She hadn’t spent much time outside since Kudo had been taken and she’d had to go into hiding, and she certainly wasn’t going to break cover for someone who probably wouldn’t even wear their own face if they _did_ meet. She emailed him instead, and he didn’t seem to object to her way of doing things. It made sense. Being who he was, of course he would know the value of secrets.

She needed someone to help her attack the organisation’s computer systems, she told him in her initial message. She had designed a virus, that would subtly alter mission details and orders, make it impossible for members to trust the instructions they were given, attack the communication structure of the organisation as a whole. A subtle strike that might well go unnoticed in the face of the loud and dramatic havoc that Hattori and Kudo were wreaking. She needed someone to load it onto one of the organisation’s computers. She needed someone who could get in, and get out, and leave no trace of his passing.

Kid seemed intrigued, at least in as much as words on a screen could express any emotion. He told her yes, gave her the address of a dead drop to send her invisible weapon to. That much she’d expected, from what she knew of Kid, and what Kudo had told her of him. He also guessed her name, and that, that she hadn’t expected. It was the one she’d used with Kudo, Haibara Ai, not her original one, not Shiho, not Sherry, but still, it was an impressive leap of deduction for someone who was not a detective. If she hadn’t _known_ just how deep in he was in his own right, she might have been worried by his having that knowledge. But if they caught him he was dead, he’d be in no position to betray her secrets.

…

Kaito hummed the mission impossible theme tune under his breath as he waited for the guards to pass. It felt strange, doing this as Kaito not as Kid, using these skills without the white suit and monocle to hide behind. But Kid had no business here, Kid belonged at heists, in the moonlight in the spotlight, and this was no heist. There was no room here to taunt his opponents, to make a scene. Everything depended on his being less than a ghost, less than a shadow, leaving no sign or trace that he was ever there. This wasn’t a heist, there was no audience to dazzle and he couldn’t afford to put on a show. This was sabotage, was a blow struck against his father’s killers, was the hidden war that the games usually concealed.

So he was Kaito, and he walked unseen through the halls of his enemies, after all no-one looking for a white suit under moonlight, would ever notice charcoal grey in the shadows.

Tantei kun’s mysterious little friend had been very helpful in providing the layout and location of one of the lower security bases. Relatively lower security anyway, it would still have been enough to give any ordinary thief pause. The Kaitou Kid was far from ordinary though, he drew attention when _he_ chose, and Kaito laid claim to all the same skills the Kid did. With the little scientist’s voice in his ear over the radio she’d sent him, the enemy’s base became his hunting ground.

He’d been surprised when she contacted him. Tantei kun’s friend, the one who was like him, body too young for her mind and soul. He’d been surprised when she contacted him, but maybe he shouldn’t have been. After all, the work Tantei kun and Tantei han were doing would require research, knowledge, access to technical support to be even half as effective as the news reports indicated, and neither of them was especially technically inclined.

Despite himself he found he rather liked the little scientist, who had once belonged to his enemies. She had a vicious sense of humour, one that Kaito could fully appreciate. The plan she wanted his assistance on was subtle and _brutal._ Almost like something the Kid might have come up with, only more efficient, with less of an eye towards appearances, and more towards results.

He slipped through the shadows as he made his way towards a computer terminal. He was comfortable enough with technology that he didn’t really _need_ the little scientist’s whispered instructions to tell him how to upload the virus, but the thrill of conspiracy, of a challenge shared, made it worth listening to anyway.

His task completed he melted back into the shadows, leaving not a sign that he was ever there. With luck it would take them months to realise their systems had been compromised, that orders were going astray, being manipulated, that budgets were being miscalculated, and bribes sent awry. Small things, subtle things that looked like minor administrative failures, and technical faults. Details that were so easy to miss.

Kaito was a magician, he knew all too well how powerful the small details could be, how they could make or break a trick. The little scientist was dangerously clever, while Tantei kun, and Tantei han hammered at the organisation from the outside, her little packet of technological poison would hollow them out from within. It was both impressive and terrifying. He prayed she never met Akako.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that under the circumstances Haibara probably wouldn't be sitting back waiting to see what happened, she'd be taking some kind of action to weight the scales in her favour. But I reckoned she'd also be fairly unwilling to venture out of her fortified bunker, so, she has Kid to help her with the legwork. Also because those two working together is an utterly terrifying concept and the black org deserves it.  
> These two are the stealth team, in contrast to Heiji and Shinichi's, blow it all to hell team.


	17. Reasonable caution and paranoia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The line between caution and paranoia is hard to spot when there really is an evil conspiracy running the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Saguru takes lessons from Kid and then violates the privacy of just about everybody. It works though.

It had been… a while, since Saguru had slept easy. Paranoia was not a good look on him he knew. He had mirrors, he could see the shadows under his eyes, the tension in his stance. He wondered how Kid did it, day in day out, keeping secrets, trusting no one, because the stress of it was _exhausting_. Sometimes he caught himself wondering if there really was a conspiracy at all, or if his mind was just drawing connections that didn’t exist and using them to fuel an ever escalating paranoia. But then he looked at the news, at Kudo and Hattori still wanted for terrorism, he saw Kuroba’s face in class, less drawn than it had been but still on edge, under a pressure that was about more than his own criminal activities, Saguru looked and his attention caught on a thousand little details that would make no sense any other way, and he knew. Imagining he was going crazy was just wishful thinking.

It could be anyone, that was what got to him. He found himself watching people at the police station, people he’d worked with, people he’d _liked._ He couldn’t believe any of them could be guilty of what he suspected them of, but he also couldn’t shake his suspicions. To have kept themselves so well hidden, for so long they must be very good at what they did. Were they good enough to fool him? He didn’t know. He found himself questioning innocent interactions, doubting anyone and everyone, up to and including his own father. After all how well does any child know their parents? There was no-one he could be sure of, no-one he could trust, no-one he could go to for help.

No that wasn’t quite true though was it? There was one person, who he knew for a _fact_ wasn’t involved in whatever this was. Or to be more accurate, was involved on the side of destroying it. How ironic, that the one person he knew for sure he could trust, was the same one he’d hunted for the better part of a year, the one he _knew_ was a criminal.

“I need a favour.” Saguru said, when he caught Kuroba after class. When dealing with Kuroba and Kid both, blunt was usually best. Less room for him to twist words for his own amusement. This time it looked like he’d actually managed to catch Kuroba off guard.

“Really. And what might that be?” Kuroba’s voice was a study in casual indifference, but it wasn’t quite enough to hide his curiosity, not from Saguru, who had really spent far too long making a study of Kuroba’s behaviour.

“I need you to teach me to pick locks.” And now Kuroba didn’t even bother trying to hide his surprise. Surprise and entirely predictable glee.

“Why _detective,_ I’m _shocked,_ simply _shocked._ What on earth could a law abiding person such as yourself need with such a shady skill?” Kuroba’s tone was light, but there was no pretending that was anything but a demand for answers. He could refuse, Saguru knew that, he could get up and walk away right then and there, and neither Kuroba or the Kid would ever bring the subject up again. He remained seated. The truth was he needed to learn this, needed to learn it _quietly_ , and irritating as he was, he knew he could trust Kuroba to keep it quiet. Kuroba was after all, very good with secrets. Still that didn’t mean he was going to give him an inch. Give Kuroba an inch and fifty miles later he still wouldn’t be done.

“It’s for a case.” He replied shortly and the way Kuroba’s eyes sharpened at his response was a testament to the intelligence he usually tried to downplay. Saguru could see Kuroba putting pieces together, perhaps not in quite the same order or way as Saguru himself would have, but still every bit as fast. He put together Saguru’s caginess, and his uncharacteristic request, and the shadows under his eyes and came up with enough to be concerned.

He didn’t press though, any more than Saguru had pressed him over his obvious fear after Edogawa’s disappearance. They didn’t have that kind of relationship, didn’t share their problems freely, if they wanted to know, they found out in other ways than asking. Instead he just smiled again, as false and convincing as the best of con artists.

“And what makes you think I would have such skills anyway.” Back on familiar ground and Saguru smirked back at him, willing to play along with Kuroba’s front for a while if it would get him what he wanted.

“I’m sure there are plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons a _respectable_ magician might know about picking locks. Escape tricks and such.” He knew Kuroba had picked up on the subtle emphasis on respectable, just as he knew Kuroba would never acknowledge it. Small amusements, for both of them.

“Indeed you are correct. Normally a magician never reveals his secrets of course, but since you are my valued classmate, I’m sure I can make an exception.” He grinned then, with an expression that promised the lock picking lessons would be accompanied by more than their fair share of Kuroba’s approach to personal entertainment. He wondered morbidly just how many colours Kuroba would dye his hair over the course of his instruction. It was not a pleasant thought, but he’d known what he was signing himself up for, and it was worth it.

…

He was right, it had been worth it, even taking into account the photographs Kuroba had taken of some of his more spectacular results. Kuroba had taught him more than just picking locks, he’d taught him to move quietly, and blend into a crowd, and create a distraction at just the right moment. He hadn’t quite been able to bring himself to ask how much Kuroba knew or guessed, but clearly it had been enough to make him worry, to make him try and equip Saguru with any skill that might help.

Three weeks later and Saguru had searched the lockers and desks of the entire Kid taskforce, including Nakamori keibu, and had moved on to the other officers in the building. When he was done with those he would start vetting the cleaning staff, and anyone else with access to the building. He had also installed wiretaps on the department’s phones, as well as the personal mobiles of a number of officers. That wasn’t something Kuroba had taught him how to do, the wiretaps were his own work, a result of an early interest in electronics. That same interest had allowed him to hack the network, he now spent time each day reading a random selection of other people’s emails. He’d wanted to read through all of them, but between his time constraints and the sheer volume of mail, he’d had to compromise and hope for the best.

There was a small nagging part of him that whispered he may have gone too far, that what he was doing was highly illegal, and a massive violation of privacy, and a worrying sign of his escalating paranoia, a part of him that felt ashamed of doing such things to people he should trust. He carefully ignored it. After all, it wasn’t paranoia if they really were out to get you. He felt bad. Of course he did. But he _needed_ to know. _Someone_ had to find out the truth, to map just how far the rot went, and somehow, things had played out so that someone was him.

Any doubts he may have had were drowned in the sheer rush of _relief,_ as he managed to establish, one by one, that the taskforce members were clean. The men he’d worked with, befriended, trusted, weren’t a part of whatever conspiracy it was that had three gifted detectives and a phantom thief running scared. What he had done was wrong, but it was worth it, to have that certainty. It was more than worth it when he managed to locate no less than six people that weren’t so clean. Not all of them were actually part of this conspiracy of course. One was just a run of the mill dirty cop, and another was using her position as a cleaner to get advance warning on police movements for her crew of thieves. But the other four, there was something more sinister there. Nothing he could prove of course, just a worrying pattern in their movements, something off in the pattern of their emails and texts. Just something that wasn’t quite _right._ Four already and he hadn’t even finished the division two building. What he was doing was _working,_ morally dubious or not, and it was worth it, it had to be worth it.

Whatever Kudo and Hattori’s plan to deal with all this was, no matter what Kid’s intentions were, there would come a point when they would all need to know who could be trusted in an infrastructure riddled with corruption. He kept his notes tightly coded. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if the wrong people got their hands on them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Saguru is making a list he's checking it twice, he's going to find out who's naughty or nice. Mostly by breaking into their lockers, going through their emails, and tapping their phones. It might be morally dubious but it is effective. Besides, at least he isn't resorting to homemade explosives, or working as an international jewel thief, which puts him one up on certain people he will not name.


	18. Important missions and exciting adventures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ran and Kazuha have a mission, if only they could stop getting sidetracked onto exciting side adventures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ran and Kazuha are catching up to Heiji and Shinichi. They've also been having a lot more fun than anyone else in this fic, mostly by dint of being casually terrifying.

There was something deeply and viscerally satisfying about hunting Shinichi down. No more waiting, no more wondering, no more waiting by the phone for a call that would only leave her with more questions than answers. She and Kazuha were taking _action,_ because Kazuha was hardly the sort of person to sit around and wait and Ran’s patience had been worn very thin by Shinichi’s behaviour over the last few months _._ She almost wished she’d gone after Shinichi before, back when he’d first disappeared. But then again if she had done, then she wouldn’t be taking this trip with Kazuha and it turned out hunting down wayward idiots was one of those things that was most enjoyable with a partner. Kazuha was so much fun to spend time with.

There was something even more satisfying about the fact that they were definitely catching up. The boys might be genius detectives, but she sincerely doubted they’d managed to figure out just how she and Kazuha had been tracking them. She actually wasn’t sure if the boys were even aware of how ridiculous the number of murders they encountered was. They probably thought it was just coincidence or something. Too much logic was always Shinichi’s downfall, and Kazuha said Heiji was no better, sometimes you just had to focus on results rather than logic, and there was no denying, tracking the dead bodies got results.

Terrorising local law enforcement also got results. She and Kazuha had a routine now. Kazuha was bad cop, going in and intimidating the information they wanted out of the witnesses, while Ran played good cop and encouraged them to open up to her. It was astonishingly effective, Kazuha could be impressively terrifying when she wanted to be. Ran could as well of course, but Kazuha just had such a natural talent, it was beautiful to watch.

“Did you see an idiot teenage detective with an Osakan accent and a really suspicious wig, anywhere near the crime scene.” Kazuha said, cracking her knuckles with a grin like a hungry piranha. Ran smiled reassuringly at the terrified policeman.

“There might have been another teenage detective, and a small child with glasses with him.” She suggested gently.  The man looked even more concerned by her politeness than he was by Kazuha’s overt threats. She had no idea why he’d react like that. He glanced between her and Kazuha looking ever so slightly panicked before he broke.

“Um, well I don’t know about the wig, but there was a guy with an Osakan accent. I mean he didn’t _look_ like a teenager, he was kind of old, but he had a kid with him, and they were both helping to solve the crime. Cute little girl, if you ignored the dead body right next to her, no glasses though.” Ran and Kazuha exchanged a look.

“You know what this means.” Kazuha said to Ran with a predatory smile.

“They’ve improved their disguises.” Ran nodded, that would make their job harder but not that much harder. Better disguises would do nothing to hide the corpses falling from the sky after all. Kazuha shook her head though.

“No, no. Well yes, they’ve done that. But more importantly it means that we’re only two days behind them. We’re _catching up._ ” Ran felt her smile twisting to match Kazuha’s at that thought. It had been a long few months chasing after those morons, but finally it was paying off. Ran had never doubted that this day would come but that didn’t make it any less sweet to know they were finally going to _find_ their idiot friends.

There had of course been one or two hiccups along the way. Like the time that kidnapping gang thought the two of them made excellent targets, and attacked them. She and Kazuha had made short work of them of course. The local police force were very surprised when they dumped a group of battered and bruised criminals on their doorstep. Ran was pretty sure there had been at least three broken arms and a sprained ankle involved. It had been very cathartic, taking out her frustrations on a deserving target. Kazuha suggested they go and seek out more scumbags to beat up, but Ran felt that was possibly crossing a line. Also it would be a distraction from their main objective of tracking down their idiots, which Kazuha had grudgingly admitted was probably true. Still, if the opportunity presented itself again they would both enjoy it very much.

And of course there was no forgetting that incident when they’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and managed to get caught up in the middle of a barfight. Well barfight was putting it mildly, it had started out as a barfight, and by the time the police had showed up, the fight had spread to every drinking establishment in the general area, including the wine tasting evening that was being held by the local senior citizens’ social club. More than one hardened brawler had come away from that battle with a mortal fear of knitting needles and people old enough to know how to make it _hurt_ when they put you down. Ran and Kazuha had got swept up in the mayhem, and done very well in the melee, until the police arrived and arrested everyone. Calling Kazuha’s father to pull strings and get them out of jail had been very embarrassing and they both made a mental not to get caught next time.

Then there was the unfortunate misunderstanding when that cult had decided she and Kazuha were incarnations of the mother goddess, and kidnapped them for a forcible spa retreat in an isolated mountain hotspring. That had been a tough one. It had taken a real force of will to walk away from the picturesque views and free massages. But they were strong. They could resist temptation. Even if it was very awkward explaining to the terribly earnest cult members that they were not in fact divine manifestations.

But through all the trials they’d faced they’d held firm, and now their reward was at hand. They were going to find Shinichi and Heiji and Conan. She and Kazuha were going to find them and they were going to _explain themselves._ She and Kazuha would make _sure_ of it, by any means necessary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided I really like writing roadtrips. This fic contains at least two of them. Possibly more if Ai and the Kid decide to travel.


	19. Well intentioned meddling and justified paranoia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kid is trying to be helpful. As far as Saguru is concerned, the worst part is that he's good at it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Kaito drags Saguru out to the sticks in hopes of getting him some new detective friends to act as support.

Saguru had dark suspicions that Kid was trying to be _helpful._ It was the only logical reason for him to be holding this heist in a small and obscure town in the middle of nowhere, when the jewel in question was scheduled to be in Tokyo by the end of the week. Kid never turned down an opportunity to make a spectacle of himself and anyone foolish enough to chase him, which meant Kid had a _reason_ for dragging them all out to Nagano province, when the crowds in Tokyo would have been so much bigger.

He’d also been having dark suspicions about _how_ Kid was trying to be helpful. They’d been growing from the moment he’d been introduced to the local police. By this point he knew how Kid’s mind worked, and he had the sinking feeling that Kid was trying to set him up on a _playdate_ with some potentially useful allies. The worst part was it was working. Saguru was actually having fun, even if Yamato did remind him a little of an older and more bitter version of Hattori. He hadn’t realised how much he’d missed having other detectives to challenge him, with Edogawa, and Kudo, and Hattori gone there had been a shortage of opportunities for detective showdowns, and... Saguru was lonely. There was nothing in the world so isolating as paranoia, even more so with justified paranoia.

Kid was a meddling, interfering, busybody, and it was utterly infuriating how good he was at it. Yamato had almost beaten him to Kid’s exit point, hampered only by his physical disadvantage, and Morofushi had managed to figure out Kid’s riddle even before Saguru. He wasn’t sure exactly when Uehara had figured out Kid was posing as the gallery owner, but the upshot was that all three managed to seriously impress him. The last person to impress him like that had been Edogawa. Whatever else might be said about him, Kid was a good judge of talent.

That didn’t stop Saguru from installing spyware on their phones of course, it wasn’t paranoia if they really were out to get you, and just because Kid was good at judging people didn’t mean he couldn’t make mistakes. But it had been enjoyable working with them, and once he was _sure_ they were clean, it might well be worth bringing them in on his mission. He couldn’t vet the _whole_ of Japan’s police force by himself after all, even with his father’s contacts, and Kid’s support only went so far when he clearly had his own angle of attack to work on. Morofushi in particular seemed like just the kind of sensible, level headed person that might be able to help with the situation, and they were all clearly gifted detectives, with just the right edge of paranoia for his purposes. No doubt Kid already had their T-shirts picked out. Kid’s meddling aside, meeting the local detectives had been one of the high points of the day.

The heist had been a bad one though. The shadowy men in black had made another appearance, they’d been showing up more and more since Hattori and Conan had disappeared, and Saguru wondered… worried, about whether the organisation suspected Kid of being involved somehow. There had been snipers again, and one of Kid’s decoys shot out of the sky, and for a single heartstopping moment, a part of Saguru had been terrified it might be the real thing. From the ashen look on Nakamori keibu’s face he’d had the exact same thought. Saguru made a mental note to order Kid some damn Kevlar. He didn’t want to have to be the one to tell Aoko that Kuroba was dead.

No-one had been hit, thank god. “Nobody gets hurt” and the promise was still holding for now. Although for how much longer Saguru didn’t know, and he suspected Kid didn’t either. Nobody had been hit but it had been close, and Saguru couldn’t help but wonder what it was that made Kid so willing to make a target of himself. What was he looking for, and why choose to make such a spectacle of it, what exactly was Kid’s plan?

Sometimes he wanted to laugh at the irony of the lethal game the two of them were playing together, such a sharp contrast to the playful rivalry that had started their association. Before his goal had been simple, chase Kid, outsmart Kid, catch Kid. Now, now he needed Kid, and feared for him, and trusted him when everyone else in the world seemed like a potential enemy, and yet, he couldn’t afford to let even a hint of that slip. So he had to keep chasing, didn’t dare give an inch, he had to be just as good as he was before things changed for fear someone might notice, only now he lived in fear that he might succeed. He really should have guessed, that working _with_ the Kid would be ten times as mind twistingly messed up as working against him.

But Saguru was good. He was very very good, and Kid was better. Between them they could spin a good enough lie to keep the whole world fooled. As far as anyone looking at the two of them could tell, nothing had changed. There wasn’t a hint of the fear that had Saguru trapping his door and window, and sleeping with his back to the wall, the same fear that had Kuroba sleeping through his classes, because he only felt safe in a crowded room, and left dark rings of exhaustion under both their eyes because the nightmares kept waking them. Even Nakamori, who knew them both so well, didn’t suspect. Their performance was solid.

But… there had been a calculating look in Yamato’s eye, when he saw Saguru’s face as the decoy glider went down, when he saw the shadowy figures slipping away after the shots were fired, when Saguru was so carefully meticulously professional in his account of the heist. Saguru knew that look, he’d seen it in Edogawa’s eyes, in Hattori’s eyes, in his own eyes when he looked in the mirror, it was the look of a detective putting pieces together into a troubling picture. If Yamato was clean then Saguru was probably going to _have_ to bring him in on the plan, if he didn’t then the inspector would likely get himself killed investigating.

If he wasn’t clean, well… then they had an entirely different problem, because Yamato had figured out _something,_ and short of measures neither Saguru, nor Kid was willing to resort to there were no easy ways to silence him.

Kid had better be right about all this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter the Nagano trio. Who will indeed end up helping once Saguru's paranoia is satisfied. Kid is pleased, and smug, very smug. Saguru will have his revenge. Ai has popcorn.


	20. Uneasy allies and limited options

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vermouth is not a friendly assassin. Shinichi and Heiji really need to try harder to remember that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vermouth drops in unexpectedly on the boys and offers some unwanted assistance.

Honestly, Shinichi had _no_ idea how Vermouth had found them. Truth be told he wasn’t even sure he _wanted_ to know how she’d found them. Actually while he was being honest, he really wasn’t sure he wanted to know how that woman did _anything._

When she’d first sat down with them Shinichi had been alarmed. No that was a lie, when she’d first sat down with them he’d been confused because her disguise as an aging cleaning lady had been much more convincing than his and Hattori’s latest getup and he hadn’t realised who she was. But when she’d addressed him as cool guy, and given that trademark disturbing smile, then he’d been alarmed. For a moment, upon recognising her, he’d been afraid the organisation had found them. But Hattori’s relaxed posture reminded him that whatever her true agenda might have been, she’d been instrumental in his rescue, and he doubted she’d throw away all that hard work so early in the game.

So now he and Hattori were sitting across from one of the most dangerous people Shinichi had ever met, in a rundown restaurant with far too few exits for his peace of mind and somehow, they had to work _with_ the situation. Needless to say Shinichi was feeling deeply conflicted, about pretty much every life choice that had led him to this point. Really he should have been used to that by now, Vermouth had a special talent for making people feel conflicted. It was the upsetting combination of disturbingly amoral, and worryingly helpful that did it, Shinichi thought. People were never sure whether to be relieved or terrified to see her.

Hattori didn’t look at all conflicted, the bastard, which struck Shinichi as deeply unfair. Hattori had made nearly as many poor life choices as he had, and yet he got to relax. Although, upon further consideration Hattori’s attitude was actually kind of concerning when he thought about it. Did he not _know_ what Vermouth was, or did he just not care. Shinichi refused to believe a detective of Hattori’s level could have missed the predator in Vermouth’s eyes, but the idea of him not being bothered by it was equally worrying.

“What do you want?” Under the circumstances Shinichi felt it was a perfectly reasonable demand to make. There was no call for Vermouth to look so amused about it, certainly there was no call for her to ignore him in favour of Hattori. Had he been replaced? Did she like Hattori better now. Shinichi wasn’t sure how to feel about that possibility. On the one hand he didn’t actually _want_ a sociopathic chameleon of an assassin to view him as a personal project, but on the other hand, he didn’t particularly want her taking a personal interest in Hattori either. Not to mention the blow to his ego, and the inescapable worry over what she might do if she _wasn’t_ treating him as a personal project.  

 

“I see you boys have been busy.” She said to Hattori, casually, almost as though they were friends and that was an image Shinichi really didn’t need in his head.

“There’s a lot to do.” Hattori replied, easily. “There something you needed?” And oh fuck they were conspiring. Shinichi was not mentally prepared to deal with this. Sure Hattori had mentioned that Vermouth had given him information on Shinichi’s location, but that didn’t mean Shinichi was prepared to see them actively working together.

At least he wasn’t hyperventilating, there was that. Although it was still early in the day, that could change.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you tough guy. So refreshingly straightforward.” Vermouth gave one of those quietly disturbing smiles as she said it and that was a nickname. Hattori now merited his own nickname, that was almost as disturbing as when he first found out Vermouth called Ran her angel, which, to be clear was on the top ten all-time list of deeply disturbing things Shinichi had encountered.

“Are you going to tell us what you want or not?” Shinichi snapped, hoping he sounded more belligerent than intimidated. It had been a long day, in fact it had been a long few weeks and he was not in the mood for all this.

“Patience patience cool guy. Everything at it’s proper time.” She smiled as she pushed a blank envelope across the table. “Tell Sherry she might want to send her tricky friend to investigate these addresses.” Shinichi would have responded but was distracted by the sound of an explosion that he and Hattori definitely had _not_ set.

Hattori proved quicker on the uptake than Shinichi this time. “What did you do?” He asked, eyes and voice sharp with accusation, and at least now Shinichi knew for certain that Hattori wasn’t fooled by Vermouth. That he knew exactly what she was, and was capable of. That didn’t make the explosion any less worrying though because he seriously doubted Vermouth would have put much trouble into avoiding casualties.

“Consider it a favour tough guy.” She said with a smile as she stood. “They needed to be dealt with and you boys are really too squeamish sometimes. Everything should go a lot more smoothly now.” Before they could react, she had vanished into the crowd. Sometimes just sometimes Shinichi came close to forgetting she was a sociopath. Then she would do something like this and he would remember, she wasn’t _better_ than the rest of her organisation, she was just less of an immediate personal threat to _him._

Shinichi _really_ hated dealing with that woman. It was an unfortunate reminder of how many principles he _couldn’t_ afford to cling to these days. He just hoped none of the casualties had been innocent bystanders this time. He wasn’t sure he could live with it if they had. Especially since Vermouth had probably framed him and Hattori for her work. It was going to be bad enough, being wanted for murder without the world believing they’d let innocents get caught in the crossfire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No civilians were harmed in the making of this chapter. Not that Vermouth would have cared either way, but as it turned out the only fatalities were org members who definitely had it coming. Ironically this only serves to make it seem more likely that Shinichi and Heiji actually did it.
> 
> The sum total of Heiji and Vermouths interactions to this point have been focused on rescuing Shinichi, so Heiji is more inclined to view her favourably than Shinichi is. Having said that he's fully aware she's a nasty piece of work, just you know, a nasty piece of work that they kind of owe for saving Kudo's life.

**Author's Note:**

> Shinichi might seem like he's handling everything a little too well. That's because he's repressing. So much. Also the drugs haven't completely worn off yet. He is definitely not ok. Heiji isn't ok either actually. He saw some pretty messed up shit on the way in to get Shinichi, and he thinks he may have killed someone. He's not sure, he didn't exactly stop to check, but he hit that one guy pretty hard, and head trauma is dangerous. He's trying very hard not to think about it.  
> Their current plan is to travel the country messing the black org's shit up at every opportunity. Mostly via arson, explosives, and other gratuitous property damage. It's not a very well thought through plan. But they are short on options.  
> There will be more details on how Heiji got Shinichi out of that lab and what they were doing to Shinichi, in later chapters. Also the reactions of pretty much everyone they know to finding out they're wanted for terrorism.


End file.
